When the third partner in their small Cape Cod trading business dies, Shad Gould and Zoeth Hamilton adopt his little daughter Mary-'Gusta. After several years, the two old salts decide that Mary should be properly educated and send her to an exclusive school in Boston, telling her that her father left her a large fortune. In Boston, Mary meets Crawford Smith, but their happiness together is threatened when she learns that he is the son of Edgar Fuller (alias Smith), a scoundrel who had run off with Zoeth's wife and stolen his money. Having discovered that Shad and Zoeth, in order to pay her bills, are nearing bankruptcy, Mary returns to Cape Cod and saves the business with her capable management. Crawford's father dies, leaving a letter of apology to Shad and Zoeth, whereupon the two young people become engaged.

Mary 'Gusta, left a penniless orphan, is adopted by two retired Cape Cod fishermen, who now conduct a general store. They lead her to suppose herself well-to-do that the bread of charity may not be bitter in her mouth. Mary takes charge of the store and puts it upon a new basis of smartness and prosperity, but competition comes and with it the knowledge that she is penniless and she also finds that she loves the son of the man who has nearly ruined her big-hearted foster fathers, but Mary 'Gusta rises to the emergency and pilots her ship into quiet waters.—Moving Picture World synopsis