Montgomery Seaton is one of the idle-rich, who makes a hobby of befriending everybody upon whom he can intrude his good offices. Thus occupied, he neglects his wife to a considerable degree, and she in turn gives her entire attention to household duties. Vera Lane is a rich widow, with whom Ernest Courtney is in love, but Courtney, being of a bashful nature, is embarrassed in pressing his suit. Mrs. Hammond comes to Seaton in distress with the story that some years before she left home with a married man and lived with him for several months. Upon discovering that she had been deceived, she returned home and later wedded John Hammond. Some few weeks after her marriage, her husband was called away on a business trio and while he was gone Mrs. Hammond became the mother of a child, the result of her conduct previous to her becoming Mrs. Hammond. She concludes with the statement that the nurse who has always secretly cared for her child has just died and that the baby must be provided with a home. Seaton goes to Hammond and relates a story which in substance made Seaton the parent of the child. He induces Hammond to adopt the baby and thus Mrs. Hammond receives in her own home the child of her Illicit adventure. Later Mrs. Hammond writes to Seaton a note telling that the baby was safely arrived in her home, and further makes clear the unfortunate condition under which the baby was born. This note, by mistake, Seaton gives to Hammond, who, upon reading it, concludes that Seaton has played a trick upon him and induced him to adopt the issue of an affair between Mrs. Hammond and Seaton. That very night, while attending a reception, Hammond discovers Seaton and Mrs. Hammond in confidential conversation. Hammond shoots, but the bullet strikes Mrs. Hammond, who has thrown herself in front of Seaton to protect him. Coincident with these details, Seaton undertakes to present Ernest Courtney's love affair to Vera Lane, the widow, in convincing fashion. While progressing with this purpose. Mrs. Seaton becomes suspicious of her husband and is doubly mystified when she sees him carrying the child to Mrs. Hammond's home. Having been a witness to the shooting of Mrs. Hammond, and being a friend of all parties concerned. It becomes the widow's mission to straighten the various entanglements, and this she does with such success that the Seatons are restored to each other's commence and the Hammonds are reconciled after Mrs. Hammond has related to her husband the story of her past.