On the eve of his wedding to Helen Urmy, Ralph Kelton is killed. Helen becomes pregnant with Ralph's son and confesses to Doctor Edmund Stafford that her baby boy is illegitimate. She leaves the infant to be raised by her old nurse. Soon thereafter, Helen falls in love with Oliver Urmy, and marries him without telling him about her son. Years later, when Aline, Helen's child with Oliver, is old enough to start looking for a husband, Edmund reappears to threaten Helen with disclosing her secret if she refuses to let him marry her daughter. Aline has her own ideas about marriage, however, and elopes with Billy Cupps, who Helen soon discovers is the son she has not seen since his birth. Then, however, Helen speaks with the nurse, who tells her that her child died in infancy, and that Billy, who was the same age, had been substituted for him. A relieved Helen then learns that Edmund has died in a car crash before revealing her secret to anyone.