Hunter Ross deserts his wife and child and she is driven to the extremes of poverty, being obliged in sell pencils to keep the spark of life in herself and little one. Fearing the worst, she writes a note, saying, "I am the wife of Hunter Ross, and this is our child," pinning the note on the child's dress in the hope that someone will find and care for the little girl, in case anything should happen to herself. Ross, who is a man of means, gives himself up to all sorts of dissipations, becoming infatuated with a very fascinating woman, with whom he spends his time and upon whom he lavishes his money. While dining in a restaurant, they quarrel, and in a frenzy, he strikes the woman. She rushes out into the park and along the riverside. Suddenly she is attracted by the prostrate form of a woman, over whom is bending a little child. Rushing to the side of the still form she discovers that the poor woman is dead. With a maternal instinct, the distracted woman takes the child to her home. She finds the note pinned to the child's dress. A week later Hunter Ross calls on the woman. She shows him the evidence of the child's identity. He tells her that she is not fit to keep his child and takes his daughter from her. The woman is aroused to a realization of her dishonor, but determinedly holds to her purpose to regain her self-respect by seeking employment and placing herself in a self-supporting position. Shortly afterward, she meets the man who spurned her. They both recognize a decided change in the other, brought about by the influence of the child, and he makes the woman his wife. In their regeneration, the rest of their lives is spent in a consciousness of doing the right thing for the child and themselves.