All during the night a storm raged furiously, but day dawned beautifully. Tom, a young fisherman, discovers on the beach of the little island evidences of a wreck, and then the limp, unconscious form of a sweet young woman, bound to a piece of the wreckage. Tom lifts her gently and takes her to the humble cottage where he and his mother live alone. With their care Ruth soon again regains health, but the terrible ordeal through which she has gone results in the complete loss of memory of the past. However, Tom loves her, and she, too, has the same passion for him. They marry, and the little household becomes a haven of happiness, until a launch party of sight-seekers stops at the little fishing island for luncheon. One of the strangers approaches Ruth and is promptly knocked down by Tom for it, but not until Ruth has recognized and remembered, and in her horror she staggers into the shack. The sight of the strange face was a shock sufficient to give back her memory of the past, memory of her marriage to a man who was not Tom, a marriage she had no memory of, and of a husband living whom she had forgotten. While she struggles with her secret, her misery and her memory, he comes, her husband, the stranger, declaring his identity and demanding her, his wife. Ruth comes from her room and reveals to him the too unhappy truth of the stranger’s claims. The launch is waiting. Ruth is forced to go away from a happiness she had never before known, he gives Tom back the wedding ring, which he kisses and places on his own finger. Then he watches the fast-disappearing motorboat which takes away from him all that he held dear in life.