Gervas Lord Carew returns from the war to find that his wife, Elinor, has deserted him for Lord Geradine, leaving their infant son dying. Embittered and disillusioned, he goes to Algeria and devotes himself to healing the desert tribesmen, who revere him. Meanwhile, Lord Geradine casts aside the faithless Elinor and marries Marny O'Meara; later he travels to Algeria for his health; and Marny, captured by desert brigands, is rescued by Carew, known as El Hakim, and is attracted to him. Elinor traces Geradine and scores him for his cruelty; she meets her husband again but refuses to return to him when he pretends to be a poor man. Carew rescues Marny from a beating by her husband, carrying her into the desert. Geradine determines to avenge himself but is killed by his hunting elephant, which he has cruelly mistreated; thus Lord Carew and Marny find themselves joined in a new love.
