After Vesta Wheatley, the daughter of an old country doctor, marries wealthy New York businessman John Randolph, Vesta's former suitor, Dick Mortimer, follows her to New York. When Vesta is left alone at her husband's hunting lodge because John has been summoned back to the city, Dick seizes the opportunity to rekindle their romance. As Vesta implores him to leave, gangster Skinny Morgan breaks into the lodge and kills Dick. Skinny insures Vesta's silence by insinuating that complications could occur if it transpired that Dick, presumably her lover, had been slain there. After sinking Dick's body in the lake, Skinny blackmails Vesta. Hunted by the police, he enters her New York home one night. Vesta discovers him in her bedroom, shoots and kills him, thus forever freeing herself from the bondage of fear.
