Plot

Calumny is one of the most despicable crimes against our neighbor, and while the wife in this story acted conventionally, she nevertheless maligned the other woman simply because she was an actress. While out on a shopping tour, the wife and her husband enter a store, leaving their child in the auto in the chauffeur's care. This gentleman pays but scant attention to the little one, so he wanders off and strolls into the stage door of a theater during the matinee. Upon their return to the auto the parents discover the child's absence and trace him to the theater stage, where they find him in the arms of one of the showgirls. The mother snatches the child from the girl's arms, scornfully exclaiming, "How dare you contaminate my child with your touch?" For this remark, together with the derisive laughter it occasions, the girl vows revenge.—Moving Picture World synopsis

Escaping from his mother, the child wanders into the theater through the stage door, and is later discovered in the arms of an actress. The mother, who looks down upon women of the stage, snatches her child from contamination. Later, her husband sees the play and becomes infatuated with the actress. When the wife discovers his flirtations, she leaves him, taking the child. Her search for work is unsuccessful, and at length she is driven to seek a position in the chorus. On the stage, at rehearsal, she comes face-to-face with the actress whom she formerly disdained, and the siren has her hour of revenge. But her better nature triumphs, and she seeks the wife in her dressing room, where she returns the jewels heaped upon her by the husband. "They are yours," she exclaims, "I have no right to them. And now may I kiss the baby?" On her way home she meets the husband, now ruined by her exactions, and advises him to return to his wife, who, touched by his penitence, forgive the past, for she loves him still.—Moving Picture World synopsis