A professor who has won a Paris painting scholarship proposes to a dark haired woman who rejects him because of her past: She had been seduced by a man she asked for help with her dying mother , and kept by him as his so called niece.

Receiving the news from Professor Oliver that he has won a painting scholarship to study in Paris, David Orland proposes to Margarita Darlow, who refuses him because of her past. (Flashbacks reveal Margarita's earlier seduction by Edwin Ramsey, from whom she had sought aid for her dying mother, and her subsequent cohabitation with him as his "niece.") David's persistence and willingness to forget the past persuade Margarita to reject Ramsey and his friend, Donald Gorham, and they go to Paris. Life is difficult, and Margarita must model to augment David's meager scholarship, but David finally receives a large prize, and they return home. Threatened by Ramsey with exposure of Margarita's past, she intends suicide, but Mary Cullen intercepts her, and David kills Ramsey in a duel.