Marian Lorimer is a young woman, as well as a recent mother, whose husband Richard does not appreciate her. When his philandering with another woman, Madge Creighton, causes Marian to fall in love with someone else, she leaves a note telling him that she is eloping. However, at the last moment, thinking of her young daughter Gladys, Marian changes her mind and sends her lover on his way, but Richard refuses to take her back. He divorces Marian, marries Madge, and, on the strength of her damning handwritten note, gains custody of their child. Marian moves west to San Francisco and changes her name to Mrs. Hatch, but eighteen years later she sees her daughter's picture in a newspaper's marriage announcement. She travels back east to her home town with a wedding gift, but her husband refuses to let her see Gladys even from a distance. On the day of Gladys's marriage to Jack Adrian, Marian appeals to Agnes, the old family nurse, to smuggle her into the house as a seamstress who brings the wedding gown. In a brief moment, without revealing her identity, she manages to touch her daughter. Seeing a framed photograph of Gladys, she hides it in her dress, but when it accidentally falls to the floor, a detective notices and brings Richard Lorimer, Madge, and Jack onto the scene. Marian is exposed and, to avoid a charge of theft, is forced to leave, but she departs knowing that at least her daughter is aware of her. Witnessing this altercation is Harry Brown, who dislikes Richard and secretly loves Marian. To avenge her, he makes love to Madge Lorimer, lures her away from Richard, then spurns her. Richard now turns against Madge, as he once did with Marian. When Gladys returns with Jack from their honeymoon, she goes to her mother.