In Victorian London, Adalaide Culver (Maureen O'Hara, loves and marries an art teacher Gilbert Lauderdale (Dana Andrews) and lives in poverty with him until he dies in an accident. A street harridan known as The Sow (Sybil Thorndike) blackmails Adalaide, claiming she is a murderer. A young barrister, Henry Lambert (Dana Andrews) , who looks like her late husband, comes along with legal advice. It must have been good advice, as later they fall in love and devise a puppet show that is a big success, and that brings Adalaide to a reunion with her estranged family and marriage to the man who looks like her deceased husband.