Daniel Gilchrist, assistant rector in a fashionable church, preaches a sermon in which he exhorts his congregation to emulate the life of Christ by giving up worldly possessions in order to find spiritual happiness. Because of this radical point of view, Gilchrist is dismissed from his post and deserted by his fiancée, Clare, who soon marries millionaire's son Jerry Goodkind. Daniel starts a mission, and there Clare, who has been badly hurt by her husband's open and callous infidelity, comes to do volunteer work. Jerry accuses Clare of infidelity, and she comes to Daniel to seek solace; Daniel then bids her return to her husband and find solace through service to Christ. Hennig, a distraught miner who believes that Daniel seduced his wife, incites a mob to burn the mission; the mob beats Daniel and their fury only abates when Hennig's wife Pearl confesses that the man who seduced her was Jerry Goodkind. A small child, crippled since birth, sees Daniel lying on the ground bleeding from the fury of the mob's unthinking blows, and haltingly walks to him; the crowd declares that it has seen a miracle. Jerry is emotionally shaken by the events, and his wealthy father comes to see that a truly Christian life is the only path to happiness on this earth.