Upon learning from the lips of a dying friend that his dead wife had been unfaithful to him, respected physician Sylvester Lanyon, his illusions shattered, severs ties to his father Matthew and sweetheart Ella De Fries, Matthews' ward, and departs for London. A year passes, and Sylvester learns that Ella is pledged to marry scoundrel Roderick Usher, who has obtained the elder Lanyon's consent to the match by blackmail. Sylvester, concerned, foils the marriage by intercepting Roderick's forged check and orders him to leave the country. Returning home with Ella, Sylvester discovers that Roderick is actually Matthew's son, the child of the woman whom Matthew divorced when she ran away with another man. Realizing that his mother, wife, sweetheart and father have all transgressed, Sylvester finally accepts his own humanity and forgives Ella, thus embarking upon a new life of compassion.