André Frey, a bohemian artist, woos and wins a rustic Swiss maid, promising to return to her after a visit to the city.  The girl, Vroni, finds herself pregnant and is forced by her father to marry Poldi Moser, the mayor of the small Swiss town.  Moser and Vroni are happy together, and two sons are born to them.

André returns to the village periodically and finally asks Vroni to go away with him.  She refuses, and he writes her an angry note.  That evening, Vroni and André are involved in a toboggan accident; Vroni is killed outright, and André is fatally injured.  Moser finds André's note and goes to him, demanding of the dying man to know which of the boys is in fact André's child.

Thinking to protect his own son, André informs Moser that Moser's own son is his (André's) son.  Moser swears vengeance on the child but relents when he realizes that he loves both boys equally.