After a long discussion with her collaborator, Philip Morbray, concerning their next novel, Ruth Sterling offers one thousand dollars wager that within a month she will have found a new sensation. Philip laughingly agrees and the bet is made. She goes away to a small fishing village in Maine and stays at the home of one of the coastguards, David Skelton and his mother. Here she is treated as if she were one of the family, and a bond of affection soon springs up between Ruth and the old lady. Being thrown constantly into the society of Ruth, David falls in love with her, a fact which is soon discovered by the lady. In order to hasten his declaration of love, she one day pretends to sprain her ankle and allows him to carry her to the house. When he takes her up into his arms he tells her of his great love for her and she replies to him with a soft kiss. The next day Ruth receives a telegram from Philip asking about the wager and telling her that the month is up. She replies to his message by another telegram, asking him to meet her at dinner the next day. A busybody sees her message at the telegraph office and tells David what is in it. The result is that when Ruth tells him and his mother that she must go to New York, he decides to follow her and find out who Philip may be. David, watching through a window of Ruth’s house, sees her meet Philip Morbray and hears Ruth tell him of how she fooled the coastguard into loving her. He at once enters the room and denounces the young lady is no measured terms as a false and heartless woman. When Ruth sees David she realizes that, in spite of the way in which she has used the man, she really loves him. She holds out her arms to him and begs him to forgive her, but he will not listen to her. David leaves the house telling her that he hopes never to see her again, telling her that his trust in women is forever broken. After he has gone Ruth tears up the check given her by Philip, who agrees that he has lost his wager, and sinks mournfully upon a couch, broken-hearted because of the wound she has inflicted on the man that she now really loves,