Rose Lane, Jack Devore, a college boy, and Nathan White, a wealthy young banker, and a party of friends are on Nathan’s yacht, cruising around in the South Seas. They sight a small island of rock coral and are looking at it through the glasses, when Rose sees a beautiful flower growing on the face of the cliff, near the top. She expresses a wish for it and both Nathan and Jack, being in love with her, vow to get the flower for her, each wagering against the other. The captain says it is impossible to land on the island with a boat and they decide to swim in. Jack reaches the island first and climbs the rock from the opposite side. Just as he gets the flower in his hand he slips and falls to the bottom of the cliff, breaking his leg. During this time a sudden tropical storm has arisen and the wind and rain blot the island from the sight of those on board the yacht. Nathan reaches the island just after Jack has fallen and, seeing him lying on the ground, runs to him. He sees that Jack has the flower and is helpless. Knowing Rose’s preference for Jack, Nathan is tempted to leave Jack there and take the flower to Rose. He yields, and ignoring Jack’s pleading for help, he takes the flower in his teeth and swims out to the boat which the captain has ordered out to look for the boys. He tells them Jack was drowned. A year later finds Rose and Nathan married, both pale and nervous, haunted by the memory of Jack. He is in Rose’s thoughts continually. Nathan, loving Rose deeply, knows that she is mourning for Jack and the vision of Jack as he last saw him, haunts him wherever he turns. Jack, grown well and strong, is living on the island, subsisting on fish and vegetation. Rose lives in his thoughts and comes to him often in visions. Finally, Nathan, crazed with remorse and unable to work, decides to go in search of Jack. He sends a note to Rose, saying that he has sinned and is going away, maybe forever, and leaves suddenly in his private yacht with a crew of two men. Rose, after reading the note, faints and falls into the arm of the old family physician, Dr. Gordon. Soon after, a son is born to her. Nathan reaches the island and he and one of the sailors put off from the yacht in a small boat. The rough waters capsize it, drowning the sailor and washing Nathan ashore. Jack pulls him in, unconscious and barely alive. Jack sees the yacht, and remembering how Nathan deserted him, is tempted to repay him in like manner, but he is touched by Nathan’s helplessness and finds he cannot. Putting the unconscious Nathan into the boat, which has washed ashore, he tows him to the yacht, where the remaining sailor helps him aboard with Nathan. They drift about the seas for days and when almost starved are finally picked up by a transport and carried to South America. There Jack is successful and in four years has made his fortune. During this time he has cared for Nathan, who has never recovered his health and remembers nothing of the past. Jack decides to take him back to New York to an expert surgeon to be operated on in an effort to restore his mind and health. After arriving in New York, he consults the surgeon, who assures him that an operation will be successful. In the meantime the fortune Nathan left Rose has been swept away by unscrupulous investors and Rose is compelled to earn a living for herself and little son, Nathan, now four years old. Dr. Gordon has helped her to secure training as a nurse and she is head nurse at the hospital at the time when Jack brings Nathan there. She and Jack meet and the old love is renewed, he, not knowing that she is Nathan’s wife and she thinking that Nathan is long since dead. In their new-found happiness they do not speak of past troubles. He calls on her that evening and Jack, unable to speak, leaves the house blindly, broken-hearted, resolving, after he has seen the outcome of the operation, to go to South America. Rose, thinking Jack does not want her on account of the child, is also heart-broken, but resolves to try and forget him in her work. She is to assist in the operation which Jack does not know, and when she enters the room and recognizes Nathan, she is almost overcome. However, she brings all her professional will power to her aid and goes through with it. The operation is successful in that it restores Nathan’s memory, but leaves him too weak to live. He recognizes Rose, remembers all and tells her the whole story, then asks forgiveness. She does not answer. Nathan asks for Jack and when Jack enters, he sees that Nathan has confessed. He tells Rose to forgive and, putting her hand in Nathan’s, starts to leave the room. Nathan calls him back, and taking his hand, joins it with Rose’s and passes peacefully away.