Young George is madly in love with minister's daughter Letty, but Letty is in love with shady Captain Fanshawe, who tricks her into accompanying him on an overnight trip to the big city, thereby ruining her reputation and forcing her father to resign from his position in the church. George offers to marry Letty, but her shame is too great and she and her father go into seclusion in a remote cottage. Then a scarlet-fever epidemic ravages the area and changes everyone's lives.