Unrequited love rules the day as both wealthy Judith Sylvester and her invalid aunt pine for men who got away, but happiness lays ahead for one while hopeful dreams sustain the other.
In order to help her poverty-stricken family, Jonnie Consadine, a strong-willed young woman from the Blue Ridge Mountains, comes to the city and takes a job in a mill, while her uncle, Pros Passmore, continues his endless search for a lost silver mine.
Trying to win the Three C's railroad line for his home town of Topaz, Colorado, Nicholas "Nick" Tarvin journeys to India to secure the famed jewel known as the Naulahka, which he plans to present to Mrs.
Elinor Shale's happiness at being engaged to Gerald Forster is interrupted by the arrival of her sister Lucy, who confesses that she will soon give birth to an illegitimate child.
Ellen Shannon, the daughter of self-made Irish politician Pat Shannon, is engaged to Ted Breslin, but because Pat began his career as a menial laborer, Ted's mother, Mrs.