After disappearing for two years, Clem Spender returns on the day his former fiancée, Delia, is marrying another man. Her cousin Charlotte sneaks away with Clem, who enlists in the Union Army the next day and dies soon after. Charlotte and Clem's child, Clementina, grows up not knowing critical Charlotte is her mother. Jealous of Charlotte's affair, Delia pretends to be Clementina's mother, sabotaging mother and child's relationship.