In a New England township where the people are cold, hard, austere, live the Jordan family. The mother is a stern, sad old woman. Ben, the younger son, disillusioned by the war but who, through his association with people he met in France, has more warmth in his nature than the rest of his family. Ben is sick of this drab existence he is living.

Ben accidentally sets fire to a barn and leaves town to escape prosecution. His only real friend is a warm-hearted girl, Jane Crosby, a ward of his mother. When his mother is expected to die Ben returns. Ben's greedy, anxious relatives gather in the parlor of the Jordan home to await the death of the old lady and the reading of her will by the family lawyer. When the old woman leaves all her property to Jane, the family is more concerned at that than over her death. Jane goes bail for Ben and makes him work for her. He becomes enamoured of another girl, a vamp by the name of Nettie, and the warm-hearted girl arranges to give up the money.

Ben realizes he has been a fool and that Jane has helped him and that all the time she has been loving him.