A young woman from the country comes to work as a maid in a wealthy household. She develops a relationship with the unreliable son of the family who gets her pregnant. He reforms and they marry.
Mr Pastry's social climbing daughter, president of a society for the rehabilitation for ex-convicts, hides the fact that her father is himself a prisoner.
The main character repeats the destiny of many peasant women of her time. Her personal feelings were completely uninteresting to her parents, indeed they were always chasing after the profit.
A man embezzles some money in order to pay his debts and the daughter of his boss, who is in love with his son, asks a rich former suitor of hers for help.