American heiress Nora Shard is in England working on a dramatization of her novel with playwright Sir Howard Furnival, however, their collaboration is kept a secret from Furnival's jealous wife Lady Doris. While visiting Lady Carnforth, Nora refuses her hostess' worthless brother Lord Bissett, and out of revenge, Bissett convinces Lady Furnival that Nora is her husband's mistress. Lady Furnival kills Sir Howard and then takes her own life. Nora is ostracized and under an assumed name goes to Venice where she meets Sir Ralph Newell, Lady Furnival's brother who is recuperating from a war wound. After Nora and Sir Ralph fall in love, Nora writes him a letter explaining her part in the tragedy, but he never receives it. They wed and return to England where Lord Bissett tells Sir Ralph that he has married the guilty Nora Shard. They separate and Nora flees to Italy where she gives birth to a son. Sir Ralph later forces the truth from Bissett and Nora becomes reunited with her husband.