Tom Hunter, a rising and sympathetic young artist, elated over his success in getting into the National Exhibition, spends a day in the country. In front of a poor farm, he meets a girl staggering along under the weight of a heavy bag of washing. This girl, Grace, is the drudge of a harsh, cruel guardian. The chance acquaintance ripens to love and Tom marries her. For a time they live a simple life in the country. Then Tom learns that his paintings have made marked success in the exhibition, he goes to the city and then into society, where he is the lion of the hour. This adulation turns his head, and be continues to postpone his return to his now lone and worrying wife. She falls sick suddenly and passes away. The village postmaster finds her and wires her husband. The news reaches him in the midst of an uproarious dinner party, where he is making love to a butterfly of fashion. The shock of the tragic news is so severe that he is stricken blind.