Dr. Sharp and his wife, Gretchen, live happily together in a little western town until the advent of the doctor's brother, Fred, who comes from the east to spend his vacation near his brother.
Broken by grief after his mother's death, Olaf becomes a wanderer. He is treated cruelly until he is given a meal by a woman at the homestead where she lives with her husband and baby.
Angelo Diotti, a violinist, although encouraged by the eulogy of the musical profession, fails to impress Mildred Wallace, with whom he is in love, by his efforts on the violin.
Cohen and his rival Goldberg enlist in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Goldberg receives a lieutenant’s commission while Cohen becomes a sergeant.
Tom Chatterton is called a coward because he will not enlist in the Home Guard during the Civil War -- his mother is dying and he does not wish to leave while she is still alive.