The young poacher Hendrik van Norden has seriously wounded a game-keeper, who has not recognized him. However, there was one witness to Hendrik's misstep, the old sea captain Van Oort, but for the sake of Hendrik's old mother he promises to keep silent. Five years later Hendrik has become a lighthouse-keeper and is courting Annie, the housekeeper of the miser Van der Meulen. Van Oort, one of the miser's few friends, is also trying to win Annie's affections - in vain. One evening, when he sees Annie and Hendrik embracing, Van Oort, in an access of jealousy, reminds Hendrik of what he knows about his past as a poacher.