Major Baring, retired, a stately old soldier, lives alone in a little town with unhappy memories. His son, Will, whom he sent west under an assumed name, has at last fallen into the gravest difficulty and is in prison, while his young wife, Mara Baring, waits with their little girl, Elizabeth, for his regeneration, not knowing of his final downfall. The Major summons from the busy managing editor’s desk of a big city paper, Allan Gifford, a college friend of his son’s, and asks him, for Mara’s sake, to include Will’s name among the dead in a train wreck. Gifford is reluctant to be a party to the deception, but Mara, coming in, unconsciously helps him with her own happy and loving self, to finally consent to the Major’s request. The following year, Gifford breaks down, from overwork and goes, between seasons, to a quiet beach resort, where he finds Mara and Elizabeth and they are thrown much together in the days which follow. Gifford discovers that Mara has a suitor in another man who is staying at the hotel, and is distressed at the possible consequence of the deception concerning her husband. In his endeavor to sidetrack the affair, he falls in love with Mara himself, and she with him. Gifford cannot declare his love, although he reveals it in all but words. Mara, thinking he is only afraid to speak, takes the initiative, but when he fails to respond, she leaves him in humiliation. When Gifford learns that Mara has gone, he rushes away to the Major to tell him of the plight and ask for news of Will. The Major reflects for a moment before he answers that nothing need stand in the way of Mara’s happiness, that his son has been dead for some time. Gifford finds happiness with Mara.