John Wynn loves Emma Lyons, and when she accepts him, he goes to get the consent of Bill Lyons, her father. Lyons, being a selfish old soul, determines to keep his eldest daughter to wait upon him. So he tells John to come back in ten years with a "stake" and he can have Emma. Wynn tries to persuade Emma to marry him in spite of her father, but she, with her strong sentiment of filial duty, refuses. By the time John returns, Elsie Lyons, whom he knew previously as a pretty child of ten, has grown to be a very attractive young woman. He mistakes her for Emma and is obviously disappointed when he meets once more the elder sister, with whom the years have not stood still. Emma realizes that Elsie unconsciously has usurped her place, and accustomed all her life to self-sacrifice, she breaks the engagement, which for ten years has been the one bright spot in her sober round of duties.
—Moving Picture World synopsis