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Polly Freeman goes to Paradise Valley looking for adventure and finds it in Stephen Edwards, a rugged dry farmer interested in irrigation projects.  Polly becomes forward with Stephen, and they spend the night together.

She later returns home and confesses everything to her sister, Joan.  Joan then cancels her own wedding to Sam Curtis and goes with Polly to Paris, where a child is born to the luckless Polly.  Sam follows Joan to France and finds her in a small inn, caring for Polly's baby.  Sam mistakes it for Joan's child and leaves her.

Polly then deserts her child, and Joan returns to Washington, where she is the guest of the Countess Selignac.  Joan meets Stephen there; he has been elected to Congress after the success of his desert reclamation projects.  Joan and Stephen fall in love, but when Polly shows up, broken in health and spirit, Joan learns that Stephen is the father of Polly's child and insists that Stephen and Polly be married.

Before the wedding, Polly dies, freeing Stephen and Joan to find happiness together.