Widow Margaret Dennis, unaware of the abusive nature of Oliver Cathcart, agrees to become his wife. Among other cruelties, Cathcart has ruined the Taylor family in a bad business deal, causing the death of Mrs. Taylor, turning Mr. Taylor into a worthless drunk and embittering their son Raymond, who swears revenge on Cathcart. Margaret's son Jim, learning of all this, forces his mother to choose between him and Cathcart. Choosing the latter, Margaret goes to his country estate, where she finally learns her husband's true nature. Nearby live the Taylors. Raymond is courting Cathcart's maid Milly, and when he comes to the estate one day to visit Milly, Margaret pleads with him to send a message to Jim. Meanwhile, Taylor's sister Steve leaves home, seeking adventure. Receiving Margaret's message, Jim arrives and promises to take his mother away the next day. That night, Cathcart is killed, and on Milly's testimony that Jim had been at the house, he is arrested for the crime. Steve, however, hearing of Jim's arrest, returns and testifies that she and Jim shared refuge from a thunderstorm in an old shack on the night of the murder. Robert Shepherd, the estate gardener, then confesses that he killed Cathcart when he found him struggling with his beloved daughter Bess. Jim is finally freed, and Shepherd acquitted on a plea of temporary derangement.
Oliver Cathcart's manners are perfect, thinks Margaret Dennis, a widow, as she enters his office with her son, Jim, to secure a position from the latter. Cathcart has a charming personality, but behind it lies a sensual and brutal nature. He is feared by his employees, among whom is Raymond Taylor, a young man whose family has been ruined in a financial deal with Cathcart. His mother died as a result and his father, Old Man Taylor, is now a drunkard, depending entirely upon the eighteen-year-old sister. Steve, Raymond and the old man vow to get revenge on Cathcart. Jim learns of Cathcart's bad reputation. Later when she announces that she is going to marry Cathcart, Jim makes his mother choose between him and Cathcart, and tells her he never wants to see her again. They go to a country estate called "The Pines," but by the villagers, "The House of Gloom." Here Margaret learns of her husband's true character. The garden of "The Pines" is cared for by Robert Shepherd, a good man who worships his daughter, Bess. Near them live the Taylors. Steve and Bess are good friends. Old Man Taylor pals with The Man With the Crutch, a short, thin, sinister, lame man, who also craves vengeance on Cathcart because of the latter's treatment of a sister. He and Taylor plan revenge together, and finally the cripple offers to pay Taylor for committing the murder. Meanwhile, Steve, full of romance and a longing for adventure, and with the ten dollars she has earned by washing, sets out, dressed in boy's clothes, leaving a note to say that she has gone out to see the world. Raymond visits his people and also Milly, Margaret's maid, and his sweetheart. Margaret gives him a message to take to Jim. Cathcart catches Raymond and Jim talking. He fires Raymond because he will not say what they were talking about. Jim wires his mother that he will come to her. Margaret, having borne Cathcart's brutality long enough, will not let him in when he arrives at "The Pines." He sends Shepherd to the village for a locksmith, but Shepherd goes only a short distance, for he meets a man who proffers to give the message to the locksmith. Jim arrives and promises to take his mother away the next day. When he leaves by way of a French window he is seen by Milly and Taylor. He gets caught in a rainstorm and seeks shelter in a deserted hut, where Steve is now trying to sleep. He thinks Steve a boy and they become friends. Raymond finds the note by Steve and, thinking Cathcart responsible, goes to the village tavern to find his father and there tells the landlord that Steve has gone away and that Cathcart has discharged him. Raymond starts out to "get" him. That night Cathcart is killed. Milly testifies to seeing Jim lurking about "The Pines," to the message sent him by Margaret and to the wire received from Jim. Margaret hires one of the best lawyers available and he soon learns that Jim's only chance is in finding Steve, who can furnish the only conclusive evidence in his favor, for she knows he was a mile away from the house at the time of the murder. Margaret can bear the suffering of her son no longer and says she killed Cathcart, but Jim urges the court not to believe her. Then the landlord, who heard Raymond's threat to "get" Cathcart, testifies, and suspicions is cast at Raymond. Robert Shepherd confesses that he killed Cathcart, because, returning to the lodge the night he was sent for the locksmith, he found Cathcart there struggling with Bess. Cathcart's brutality to her aroused for the first time in his life an overpowering passion of hate, which could be wiped out only by killing. Steve, having read an advertisement that a man's life depended upon her and that she was wanted in court, arrives and relates her story. It frees Jim. Shepherd is acquitted on the plea of temporary derangement. Some time has passed. An odd wedding takes place in the deserted hut where Jim and Steve first met. The only witnesses of the ceremony are Raymond and Milly. Old Man Taylor, because of the shock to his weak mentality, caused by the murder of Cathcart, dies.
