On discovering that their beau, Timothy, the village schoolmaster, is quite unable to choose between them for a life partner, Ivy and Lily Skinner, two maiden ladies, agree to draw lots. Ivy, who is of a romantic, novel-reading nature, loses and is broken hearted. She seeks solace in her favorite, Tennyson, and in reading "The Lady of Shalott" becomes imbued with the determination to die as did the heroine in the book. She puts on her best white dress, bedecks herself with a wreath of flowers takes her beloved Tennyson, and on her way out sees the ardent schoolmaster on his knees proposing to Lily. That breaks the last connecting link binding her to this life, and with a parting dramatic gesture she wanders down to the river bank. There Ivy finds a row-boat, and after writing her name all over it, she gets in, pushes the boat off with an oar, and lies down in the bottom, leaving it to drift out to the raging sea or wherever it may. As it happens, the boat catches in an eddy and comes ashore, so Ivy, now weeping softly and shivering with cold has to get up and push it off again. But death does not come easily, so she looks in the book for further particulars. She finds that the Lady of Shalott died singing, so Ivy decides that must have been what turned the trick. She accordingly lies down again in the boat and starts to sing a weird high key. Captain Starboard, their next-door neighbor, a grouchy old retired sea captain, hears the strange music, and although filled with superstitious fear, wades out and rescues the fair Ivy. He does not know what to make of it, but grumbingly carries her home, where she is put to bed by her sister. Next day, when the Captain calls to visit her. Ivy, who has an awful sore throat, greets him with a stocking wound around her neck. All ends blissfully when a few days later the local photographer takes photos of the four newlyweds. Ivy and the Captain, Lily and the schoolmaster.