In a Paris boarding house, a mysterious stranger seems to somehow solve the problems and conflicts of the residents, all the while hiding a secret of his own.
John Schuyler, a happily married lawyer, is appointed diplomat and sent to England. Due to an unfortunate accident, his wife and child can not come along with him.
Hero Henry Court (Herbert Rawlinson) is very much his parents' child, having inherited the predominant character traits of both his go-getting father and his shy, retiring mother.
A girl is forced to marry a irresponsible man she does not love to save her fathers reputation. At the same time she falls for a religious preacher to the poor.
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.