Every night, Madge Dow of the Middleport Orphanage, imagines herself in the lighted room in the house across the way, being tucked into bed by a beautiful mother. After Madge and her friend Spotty escape to visit settlement worker Letty Thompson, and Letty encourages them to investigate the house, they find a grumpy, gout-ridden old Major there, still irritated over his daughter's marriage years ago without his consent.

Author Noel Graham goes to the little village of Mondon, where his ancestors lived, for solitude to write. While searching for a lost puppy, Noel meets Rhona Allerton, who is visiting her guardian, Lewis Moffat, a writer in his declining years. Realizing that he needs inspiration to write a passionate romance, Moffat, with the help of old Benson, a former derelict now in his service, encourages the blossoming love affair between Rhona and Noel, while planning to destroy it later and analyze their suffering.

Heading to America after finding themselves destitute following their father's death, Charles de la Fontaine, the Marquis d'Aubeterre and his sister Helen secures a position in the home of Lathrop, a millionaire thanks to the Countess d'Este. He instantly falls in love with Lathrop's pretty daughter Marian, but she fears he is a fortune hunter and becomes engaged to the wealthy Rudolph Miller. Charles tells her he would only marry her when the two are equally wealthy. Charles then secretly backs Marian's brother Frank in a successful financial venture, making both rich. Discovering Rudolph is unfaithful and with the "golden wall" of wealth that had separated them now obliterated, Marian and Charles wed.