PART ONE: Lady Isabel Vane, the daughter of an impoverished Earl, marries Archibald Carlyle, a rising young lawyer. Carlyle's boyhood friend is Richard Hare, and prior to his marriage the gossips had suspected that Carlyle would marry Barbara Hare, Richard's sister. Barbara is secretly in love with Carlyle, but he does not suspect it, and his feelings toward her are purely brotherly. Almost immediately after her return from her wedding trip. Lady Isabel hears of this supposed romance, and is disposed to be jealous of Barbara. Circumstances seem to confirm the gossip, for the husband and Barbara are surprised in a secret conference, soon after his return from the wedding trip. So Lady Isabel's life as a bride opens with the belief that her husband is not true to her. Her husband does not explain, for she fails to tax him with his supposed treachery. The fact is, that Carlyle's friend. Richard, is a fugitive from justice. The father of the girl he loves is slain, and the evidence points strongly against Richard, although he is innocent. Barbara's conferences with Carlyle have been concerning her brother's case, as she is the only person he can trust to bring messages to Carlyle, his lawyer. Some years later, Sir Francis Levison, a fashionable rogue, is a guest at Carlyle's home, and determines to win Lady Isabel. Finding that she is jealous of Barbara Hare, he goads her to fury by bringing the wife to the place where they meet. Lady Isabel, not knowing that her husband has just been in conference with Richard Hare, misconstrues his actions, and to revenge herself, agrees to elope with Levison, leaving a note telling her innocent husband that he has driven her to it. Carlyle receives the message, and is comforted by his baby son, who is all that keeps the husband from utter despair. PART TWO: Lady Isabel, the wife of Archibald Carlyle, deserted him and eloped with Sir Francis Levison, who had traduced her husband. She soon bitterly regretted her foolish action, but not knowing what to do and being friendless, drifted along for a year before she summoned up resolution enough to decide that she would separate from Levison. This action she took immediately after learning that Levison had deceived her, and that her husband was an honorable man. Accompanied by her infant child and the latter's nurse. Lady Isabel crossed to France. There the train on which she was traveling was wrecked and many passengers killed. The woman's child and nurse were among the victims, and through an error her name also appeared among those who had been killed. Although she did not die, Lady Isabel was severely injured and lingered in a hospital for months. While convalescing, she read in an old newspaper that she had been reported killed, and decided not to attempt to correct the error. At the hospital she was known as "Madame Vine," and under that name she decided to live a new life. While companion for a woman she is unexpectedly offered another position as nurse for her own son, a lad, who she learns with horror is in delicate health. Her mother love determines her to risk the chance of detection, and carefully disguised, she appears at her old home as a menial, but happy because she can again see her darling boy. She has many heartaches, however. She sees the woman she once regarded as her rival, now the happy and honored wife of her former husband and hears her singing to him the songs that had once been sung by the Lady Isabel. Still she puts up with everything, working and praying for the recovery of her child, who is gradually sinking into a decline. Her petitions are not granted, and the boy dies. Before he passes away, however, the frantic woman reveals herself to him, and is surprised by her former husband. She appeals to him for forgiveness, he grants it, making her last moments peaceful and happy. The strain and grief had been too much for her and she sinks dead at the feet of the husband she had so cruelly injured. The man who had wrecked her home did not escape. Arrested for a murder he thought would never be traced to him. He was convicted and executed, while Barbara Hare's brother, wrongfully suspected and for years a fugitive with a price on his head, is cleared at last, and his sister rejoices that the last cloud has been lifted from her life, and that she can be happy with the love of her husband and the brother for whom she had sacrificed so much.