Isabel Bland is a fun lover and does not want children, but her wealthy, reclusive husband Robert desires some. They drift apart, and after Isabel learns of Robert's involvement with another woman, she divorces him and goes to their Florida island summer home, while Robert retires to the Everglades, leaving his business with his roguish brother John. When Robert learns that Isabel's old sweetheart, William Proctor, is coming to visit their island home, his love for Isabel returns. He goes there and during a storm, sees Isabel passionately embracing Proctor. A flash of lightning illuminating Robert's face on the window pane strengthens Isabel's resolve to resist Proctor. She reconciles with Robert and after a year, dies giving birth to their daughter Bella. Twenty years later, when Bella rejects her cousin Ralph's proposal, Ralph's father John proclaims that because Bella's parents never remarried, she is illegitimate and not Robert's lawful heir.