Mary Adams, a young school teacher, when not engaged in her work, dreams of the days when the world was peopled by knights and beautiful ladies in distress. She is so imbued with the spirit of romance that when a strange young man rescues her from a street ruffian she idolizes her hero, picturing him as a regular Sir Galahad. Mary's rescuer is Jim Anthony, a mechanic with inventive talents. His invention is stolen and, embittered by the experience, Jim becomes a burglar. Mary, knowing nothing of this, falls in love with and marries him. Anthony is a product of the slums and in his wanderings has lost track of his mother. Learning that she is living in the mountains of Carolina, Jim persuades Mary to go with him to visit her. He takes with him a bag of jewelry, the plunder gained in his recent robberies. The young couple find Anthony's mother living alone in a hut. The old woman has become a wretched creature. She fails to recognize her son, who asks for a night's shelter for himself ...