Molly was known as the illegitimate child of a reprobate. Elijah Merrick, a young and enterprising sea captain, understands that in wooing and winning her, he will have to defend her from his mother; fight his town's determination to ostracize her, and force The Church of the Standing Order, Congregational, to accept her. In this he succeeds, but he cannot defeat Molly's attraction to Isaac Warden.