A young woman (Mae Marsh) who lives with her family by the sea is going out with a man (Robert Harron), until she rejects him after she meets an artist who proposes to her. When she discovers that he has a girlfriend (Clarie McDowell) it leads to tragic consequences. Mae Marsh has an innocent charm in this D W Griffith film filmed mainly on location by the sea. The story was inspired by a poem by Charles Kingsley.