Gerald Temple falls heir to his uncle's fortune and is celebrating the event with a number of his friends, when he chances to meet the celebrated dancer, Stella. Both are infatuated with each other. He calls to see Stella many times. Gerald has as a rival, Leo Marcel, Stella's dancing partner. Upon one occasion, just as he is proposing marriage to the dancer, he receives word that his mother is dying and rushes to her bedside. It is his mother's dying wish that Gerald marry Myrtle, his foster sister, and although Gerald knows what it will cost him, he gives his consent that his mother may die happy. Gerald and Myrtle are married, but it is with difficulty that he is able to remain away from the woman he truly loves. Gerald finally returns to the dancer, casting all discretion to the winds. Unknown to Gerald, the dancer is a mother. She left her baby, which she was unable to care for herself, on the steps of a mansion in Wilshire, and it is now that all the longing of her mother heart returns in full force. She takes the matter up with a private detective agency, which bends all efforts toward locating her daughter. Meanwhile, the affair between Stella and Gerald has been progressing rapidly. Gerald finally decides to elope with her. Leo Marcel, through jealousy, informs Gerald's wife, Myrtle, of the affair and the latter calls upon the dancer. A spirited scene follows, but the dancer is more determined than ever to have the man she loves. Gerald falls later, after a long wait at the rendezvous he has appointed with Stella. By this time, however Stella has received a communication from the detective agency which tells her the whole truth. Myrtle Temple, Gerald's wife, is her own daughter. When Gerald asks the reason for her delay, Stella very coolly refuses to have anything more to do with him. He is driven nearly mad by this sudden disappointment and leaves the dancer's apartment in a rage. Gerald returns to his sorrowing little wife. Stella accepts a contract with a London Music Hall which she has been putting off for a long time on account of her affair with Gerald, not being able to tear herself away from him, but before she goes she cannot restrain one last look at her daughter whose happiness she so nearly wrecked. As she gazes in at a window of the Temple mansion she sees husband and wife in loving embrace. She leaves them without knowledge of either her presence or true identity.