Phillip Randall, a wealthy young southerner in search of health, travels in a coach to a little woodlawn resort, called Ardmore Inn. There he is cared for by old Tom Babcock and his lame wife, Rosa. The daughter, Sarah is to be married the next day, in the garden of a near-by convent, Violet, a girl of seventeen meets the Mother Superior, who reminds her that her eighteenth birthday is approaching, when she is to take the Holy Veil. On the wedding day of Sarah, Violet gathers a large basket of roses for the bride. The village guests have assembled at the inn and Phillip, at the request of old Rosa, acts as best man. After the ceremony Violet gives the roses to Sarah. She becomes self-conscious under Phillip’s admiring gaze. Phillip learns from old Rosa that Violet’s mother, after her betrayal by the son of a wealthy man, had died broken-hearted. Before her death she left her infant at the door of the convent, where the child was found by the Mother Superior, who brought her up and called her Violet. The next day Phillip shoots a bird in the convent garden. The bird falls, at Violet’s feet. Phillip approaches, and his attitude towards Violet is a mingling of shame, amusement and awakening love. At the evening vespers she is questioned as to her strange mood by the Mother Superior, who, after soothing her sends her to her convent cell to pray for divine guidance. Meanwhile Phillip has a vision of Violet and realizes how completely she has aroused his love for her. Violet has also fallen under the spell of love. She takes a piece of altar cloth she is embroidering, puts it on her head and leans out of the window to pluck a spray of roses. The candle throws her shadow on the wall of her cell, and a vision fades in of herself arrayed in a white bridal gown and veil with an armful of roses. The vision fades and Violet, terrified by her wicked thoughts, tears the cloth from her hair and flings the roses from the window. Unable to rest, she rushes out of the convent. Phillip, equally restless, leaves the inn and sits down on the steps of the village church. Violet, on approaching the church, starts as she sees the figure of Phillip rise up before her. There in the moonlight they meet. Phillip confesses his love. The girl alarmed at his passionate pleading, tells him she cannot be false to her vows, and seeks refuge in the convent, where she sobs in despair in her cell. Some days later Phillip is thrown from his horse in a hunting party and is seriously injured. Violet witnesses his fall. For a month he lies ill at the inn, while Violet looks eagerly forward to the day of his recovery. A week before Violet is to take the veil Phillip comes out of his delirium, and longs to see her again. He finds a pencil and pad on the table near his bed, and writes her a note in which he asks her to become his wife if God grants his recovery. On reflection it occurs to him that it would be wrong to make her break her vows, and he is about to destroy the note when he faints from undue exertion in his feeble condition. Old Tom, however, finds the note, and hands it to Violet, who, after reading it, rushes from the convent garden to the consternation of all the nuns. Violet enters the sick-room and kneels at Phillip’s bedside. When Phillip opens his eyes and sees Violet, he masters his desire to clasp her in his arms, and asks her forgiveness, telling her he knows that she intends to be true to her vows. Surprised at Phillip’s apparent change of attitude, she staggers to the door of the convent, where the Mother Superior catches the fainting girl in her arms. Phillip, on discovering that the note he wrote to Violet has disappeared, learns from Tom that it had been delivered to her. Presently he finds the crumpled note at the foot of his bed, and realizes that Violet had come to consent to give herself to him instead of the Church. The shock causes him to have a relapse, and after his recovery he goes to the convent. Looking over the hedge he sees Violet, draped in black. With a little cry of grief Violet lowers her head in prayer and passes on without a word.