Recent immigrants August and Hilda cannot understand the American emphasis on weddings, because in their country, couples never get married. Fearing that he will be arrested for living with a woman who is not his wife, August stows away on a ship and dies in a wreck at sea. Afterward, Hilda tries to commit suicide, but the wealthy Esther Grail saves her, and then adopts her infant son Stephen. Years later, Esther tells him the circumstances of his birth, and so Stephen goes on a crusade for the rights of illegitimate children.

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