Elegant widow Mrs. Harmon, finds her funds are quickly dwindling, sees that her charms cannot pull the wealthy Van Surdam away from his mistress Claire Wilson, she uses her daughter Ethel to bait him. Ethel marries to please her mother, but suffers from Van Surdam's brutality and learns to hate men. John Arnold, once a promising shipbuilder, but now a drunkard, hates women because earlier his fiancee Claire left him for Van Surdam. When Ethel accompanies her family on a cruise and their boat is torpedoed by a submarine, John, the ship's stoker, rescues Ethel and swims with her to a deserted island. After months of distrust, they learn to love each other and are about to perform a marriage rite when a rescue ship arrives. When Ethel repulses Van Surdam's advances on the ship and he attacks her, John saves her. Van Surdam, suspicious of their relationship, dies from a heart attack, and a year later John and Ethel marry.
—Pamela Short