To escape the dreary formality of her born life, Drucilla marries a missionary, Ferdinand Smith, and goes with him to Africa. Here her life proves anything but happy. Denied the pleasures enjoyed by most girls of her age, she endures her husband's cold severity as long as possible and then leaves him, returning to America, where she visits her old school friend, Letitia Proudfoot. It is while attending a reception with Letitia that she meets the poet, Forrest Smith, whose attentions are welcome after the austerity of the frigid Ferdinand.