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This drama is based on the novel by Mary E. Wilkins-Freeman. When Andrew Bolton (Marc MacDermott) has financial difficulties, he finds everyone in his hometown against him. He goes to jail for embezzlement and his daughter Lydia (Aida Horton) is sent to her uncle's to live. The Bolton home falls into disrepair until Lydia grows up (to be played by Alice Joyce). She returns to her hometown under the name of Lydia Orr and buys the old mansion. Because she is a stranger in town, she is looked upon with dark suspicion, and false rumors about her and Wesley Elliott, the village minister (Frank Crane), are spread. The inhabitants are divided into two camps: those who want Lydia to go away -- Elliott's jealous girlfriend Fanny Dodge (Patsy DeForest) being one of them -- and those who believe in giving the girl a chance. But when Bolton returns to town, his prison term ended, the townsfolk explode in anger. A lynching party storms the Bolton house in search of the old man. Bolton, Elliott, and Lydia's sweetheart all try to stop them, but Bolton falls dead. The mob dissolves and Lydia's adversaries come to acknowledge their mistake.