To escape the designs of his mother and sister, who wish him to marry Dorothy Marr, to further their social ambitions, Walter Gray goes out west. In the west he meets Mary, a bareback rider in a small circus, and falls in love with her. He marries her and brings her back home to his parents and sister. They treat her very coldly. The Greys give a costume dance, at which many daring costumes are worn, Dorothy, in the costume of Salome, being the most risque. Mary, unable to stand the family any longer and unhappy at the growing indifference of her husband, decides on the night of the dance, to steal out of the house and away. Walter sees her, and asks her where she is going. She points to the ballroom where Dorothy is dancing a Salome dance. Walter watches the dance a moment. He is struck with the unwholesomeness of it all, has a revulsion of feeling, and says, "Wait for me, Mary, I'm going with you!" Thus Mary wins out in her honest claims over his mean-spirited and hypocritical family, who tried to set him against her.