James Ridley. A young man of good family, but who has wasted his inheritance in gambling, is caught in a great railroad accident and reported dead. Shortly after he kills a man in a drunken fight and is sentenced to prison for a long term. He is imprisoned under a false name because he deems it better for his young wife to believe him dead. She becomes acquainted with a rising young lawyer and marries him. He becomes famous in statecraft and is elected Governor of the state. She has a little daughter and is happy. Shortly before Thanksgiving the Governor-husband pardons some convicts, among them the former husband who, dead to the world, had served a long term under an assumed name. Desperate and arrayed against the world, the ex-convict learns of his wife's marriage and decides to blackmail her. He goes to the house during her husband's absence and demands money and threatens to expose her. A young criminal bent upon burglary is secreted in the house. The wife leaves the room to obtain more money for the convict husband and the burglar encounters him and kills him and escapes. The Governor-husband returns and asks for an explanation and his wife pointing to the body of the convict-husband, exclaims "that she has killed a burglar."