Oliver Beresford is a stern, Puritanical, and uncompromisingly rigid father. When shameful stories about his daughter Judith surface, rather than determine whether the stories are true, he bans her from his house. Her brother David, a pusillanimous reprobate, has secretly married and fathered, then abandoned, a child. Judith takes care of the child and finds a way to restore her family through the love for the babe.