Cassie Innes is determined her husband's lover, Fanny Howe, will not gain possession of her house after she dies. On her deathbed she tells her daughter, Dot, to burn the house down. Dot promises to do so, so that her mother can die happy, but she does not carry out her promise. Her mother's apparition begins to appear to Dot when she is asleep, and one night Dot watches her set fire to the house. She is rescued by the local doctor, who has befriended her, and he offers her an alternative home.