Eve Mason, a white-passing black woman, moves to a remote cottage she inherited from her late father. She makes the acquaintance of her neighbor, a dashing black settler named Hugh Van Allen, and quickly falls for him. Trouble brews as the local cadre of racist hucksters want the valuable land Van Allen lives on, and will do anything to take it from him.

The brute is a gambler, boxing manager and underworld boss who mistreats a young woman. She is forced into marriage with him for money after her original fiance is thought dead. When that man returns, he attempts to rescue her.

Screenplay adapted from Charles Chestnutt's novel.

When Arthur Gilpin, a black night watchman, finds young Myrtle Gunsaulus mysteriously murdered in the basement of a factory, he is charged with the crime. The film is now believed to be lost.