Rose Leigh is a young schoolteacher. She sees a paragraph in the paper, saying that in a certain small village they have had in six months, three teachers (men), and all have left because the boys are so unruly and impossible. She resolves to try the experiment of giving them a woman teacher, and applies for the situation. The trustees of the school, who are at their wits' end, gladly accept the offer. She arrives, and when the bad boys led by Hank and Bill prepare to give the new teacher a warm reception, they are astonished and dumbfounded when they find it is a woman. By force of will and stern discipline she gets the school in order and wins the love of all the scholars. She becomes particularly interested in Jack Hally, a pupil who is struggling hard to get a good education, make a name in the world, and prepare a home for his sweetheart, Prudence. Her interest in Jack is misunderstood by the boys, who think he is in love with her. Hank, who admires her himself, gets up a vigilance committee, seizes on Jack when returning with Prudence from a lesson with Rose, drags him off to the wood and is about to inflict condign punishment on him, when Rose appears on the scene berating the boys soundly for their conduct. Makes them release Jack and apologize to him. Six months later she resigns. Scholars and trustees alike try to keep her, but her fiancé, Herbert, arrives on the scene, they see the reason for her resignation, give her three hearty cheers and wish her joy in her new life, as she starts away on the departing train, with her intended husband.