Willie Buckland, a gypsy, tells his white friend the story of his life and incidentally explains why he and his wife always return each year to that same spot to hear the chimes in the village church. His face working with emotion he tells how, years before, he and little Jane, the gypsy maid were pals and sweethearts. How they grew up together, in the wild gypsy life, until his father died and he went to the city with money in his pockets; how he had met “The Painted Woman,” how he spent his last cent on her, and then found she had conceived a pure love for him. Soon he felt the insistent call of the road, but he promises to stay with the woman until she dies, which will not be long, for she is failing rapidly. One night he stole out into the meadows outside the city, and stumbled upon Jane’s camp. He heard her announce her love for him, and, filled with hope, returns to the city, where the Painted Woman dies in his arms. Penniless and ill, he wandered out into the street and thence to the meadows, where he is found by Jane and nursed back to health. From his delirious ravings she fears his love is insincere and when he is well she tells him that if he finds her wherever she may wander, one year from that date, that she will believe him and marry him. If not, she will take it as a sign that he has gone back to the white people. A long weary year passes, but Buckland has not found her, until, when he has given up hope, he arrives in that very village just as the chimes are ringing, and there he finds Jane. His story finished, Buckland points to Jane and their children with a happy smile, as both men think of how Jane brought back her husband when he had apparently “gone to the dogs.”