Shipwreck survivor Helene is washed ashore near a small English village, where she meets and falls in love with widowed pastor Edmund.

Edmund's sinister housekeeper Dorothy is determined to drive the newlyweds apart.

Helene tries to adjust to life as a pastor's wife and buys her husband a dog, but Dorothy schemes to ensure her reputation is tarnished.

While Edmund and Helene hope to conceive a child, Dorothy's campaign to undermine and disgrace the pastor's wife continues.

Edmund announces he and Helene are going to start a new life in Fiji, so Dorothy hatches an evil plan to stop them leaving.

As Helene continues her affair with the doctor, her past looks set to be unravelled by hunchback John Whiffin.