A man from a wealthy family falls in love with a florist ,but the lover has to go to war and to leave his darling crying ...and giving birth to a child;the poor girl marries a brute to give her baby a daddy .He gets a stepfather "à la Murdstone" who mistreats him .The mother ,on her deathbed ,urges her son to find his true papa ;but the unfortunate boy is on the road to perdition. The father back from war gets married (mariage of convenience) and is no longer happy in his chic milieu.Meanwhile ,his illegitimate son is charged with murder and stands in trial,and the counsel for the prosecution is none other than his biological father .