Dr. Harcourt's daughter, Edith, falls sick. While treating her, the doctor is summoned to the sickbed of a poor neighbor's daughter who is also gravely ill. The doctor is torn between his duty, and concern for his own daughter's welfare. Duty wins out and he rushes to the bedside of the neighbor's child, promising his distraught wife that he will return home as soon as possible. He finds the child near death. Meanwhile, Edith takes a turn for the worse and a servant is sent to bring him home. Dr. Harcourt is faced with the dilemma of returning to save his own child, or staying to save another. He stays. When the neighbor's child is out of danger, he returns home to find that his own daughter has died.