- Ruth Hoagland grows up on an island off the Massachusetts coast with no companion other than her father, a half-witted fisherman who spends most of his time hunting for buried treasure. Vacationing yachtsman Bob Winthrop and Ruth fall in love, but Winthrop returns to New York, and after a year, has forgotten Ruth. After finding two chests in a cave, Ruth locates her father unconscious from a fall. She goes to the mainland for help, but returns with the Reverend Josiah Arbuthnot and Dr. William Strong, to find her father dead. Strong, out of kindness, offers to marry her, but Ruth declines, sure that Winthrop will return. She offers to divide the chests with Strong and Arbuthnot, but after Strong discovers they are worthless, he withdraws his savings, and gives Ruth money to develop her voice in New York, saying that it came from selling the chests' contents. After Ruth learns of Winthrop's affair with a musical comedy star, she returns to the island to prepare for her Broadway debut, where she discovers Strong's sacrifice.
- Robert Winthrop and his friends, seeking fun and adventure aboard his yacht, "The Skylark," cruise through the Florida Keys. As they near Hoagland's Island, the captain remarks that pirates used to bury their treasures there years ago. Bob decides to go in search of treasures. He sets sail alone in a small sailboat. As Bob sails along the coast of the island, the rudder of his boat is jerked from his hand, and as he sets about to repair it, is startled by the appearance of a girl known as Ruth Hoagland, daughter of the owner of the island. In the course of passing weeks, Bob makes many trips to see Ruth, always sure to avoid her father, who has a gun ever ready for the reception of trespassers, for the old man is demented and spends all his time searching for treasures. A great love between Bob and Ruth develops, and as the season draws to a close, he comes with the news that he must return to the city, A year passes and Bob does not return, for he has forgotten the little girl. One day, while roving about the island, Ruth comes upon two chests. She hurries to get her father to assist her to open them, and finds him lying unconscious with blood streaming down his body. He had fallen down a ravine. Ruth makes him as comfortable as possible, and hurries to the mainland for aid. On the mainland Ruth encounters the Rev. Doctor Arbuthnot, who listens to her story, and goes with her in search of Dr. Strong. They go to the aid of her father, but it is too late; Fate decreed that he die. Rev. Arbuthnot and Dr. Strong are in a quandary as to what to do for Ruth. Strong, from the bigness of his heart offers to marry Ruth. She refuses his kind offer, feeling certain that Bob will someday return. After calm is maintained, Ruth tells the Reverend and Strong of her find, and offers to share her fortune with them. As they approach the spot, Strong is the first to notice the word "dynamite" written on the chests. He suggests that the Reverend and Ruth take a walk until he gets the tools to open them. Strong and Rev. Arbuthnot decide that Ruth must not know that the chests are worthless and arrange to send her to New York to realize her life's ambition to become a singer, telling her that the money they have given her to pursue her studies is what they received for the contents of the chests. In New York, Ruth's and Bobs paths cross as goes to him, as manager of a show (not knowing it is Bob), for an appointment. While at his office she encounters Fay of the Follies, who has Bob much under her control, and who influences him not to give Ruth an appointment. Ruth returns to Mrs. Greer, the woman Strong had sent to chaperon her. Ulrich, New York's greatest theatrical manager, who sent Ruth to Bob, is angered at his refusal to engage Ruth, and he gets her another appointment, and gives her several weeks to rest prior to her long engagement, during which time she returns to the island. Meanwhile, Bob learns of Ruth's whereabouts, and hurries to atone for his action, but Ruth's faith in him is shattered, and she bids him leave her. It is later discovered by Ruth that the chests she found were worthless, and she then realizes Strong's supreme sacrifice and his great love for her. It takes but little time for her own love to awaken for Strong, who enjoys the just reward for his self-denying devotion. While he holds her in his arms, Arbuthnot is regaling himself in the telling of the unusual love affair to Mrs. Greer.
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