Alice Loring's contented life with her husband Thomas and son Harry is disrupted with the appearance of her former lover, the wealthy Stephen Brooks, who had taken advantage of her youthful innocence years earlier. Through Brooks's intervention, Thomas loses his job and his subsequent failure in finding other employment results in his death. Alice earns a living for herself and her son as a dressmaker and becomes so successful that she is able to send Harry to college. At school, Harry meets and falls in love with Brooks's daughter Grace, but her father refuses to permit the match when he learns that his daughter's fiancé is Alice's son. Harry proves his true worth, however, when he saves Brooks's son Robert from a burning laboratory. Later Brooks asks Alice to forgive him for his unmanly actions, thus allowing Alice to triumph over the past through her son's valor.