James Sterling, wealthy bachelor, is told by his doctor that he must go up into the mountains if he would recover the health lost in his midnight parties. He goes, leaving behind Clarice Driscoll, a society girl whom he loves. In the mountains he meets Lucy Bingham. Away from the city influences, he falls in love with this maid of the wilds, and she, blinded by his polished manner and the prospects of magnificent city life, consents to marry him. She, in her turn, leaves behind David Graham, a young mountaineer who wants her as his wife. Once in the city, Lucy finds that her fine new clothes and many servants cannot change the real Lucy who cannot understand or be understood by her new friends. Even her husband, so charmed with her wild freedom in the mountains, becomes angered at her inability to become conventional and upbraids her for it. But Lucy cannot reconcile herself to this strange, cramped city life with its pretenses and restraints, and longs again for the unrestricted freedom of her home in the mountains. One morning, unable to bear it longer, she starts away for the great hills, where she again breathes freely. Her husband follows her; and once again they find love and a complete understanding.