Self-conscious of her poverty and ashamed of her wretched condition and personal appearance, Marie finds sustaining her place among the other girls in the factory where she works difficult. She hopes and prays that someday she might be able to avoid their jeers and ridicule at her shabbiness. The old hat she is obliged to wear seems to be the cause of her constant embarrassment. One day she's passing a milliner's when she sees a very elaborate hat that costs the very low price of $5 and determines to secure it ,and from that moment she figures on how she can secure it by every possible economy. When she goes to bed that night, she dreams of the hat and the impression she is making among the girls at the factory. She oversleeps, and when she reaches her place of employment, the foreman discharges her. She tries to secure a position elsewhere, but is always rejected. She has gone without food to secure the new hat and now begins to feel the pangs of hunger and weakness. She looks distressed and her appearance arouses the sympathy of a good-hearted fellow, who steps to her side and forces a $5.00 bill into her hand. The poor girl is dumbfounded, but when she sees the denomination of the bill, she immediately thinks of the hat and the realization of her dreams. As fast as her weakened condition will permit, she goes to the millinery shop and buys the hat. Overjoyed, she starts for her home, but drops helpless upon the sidewalk. She is taken to the hospital and despite the efforts of the doctors to save her, she dies; her last moment made happy by the possession of her much-cherished ambition, the new hat, which she fondly holds as she passes away.