An opera singer leaves her wealthy lover for a young priest.

On New Year's Eve, an aging bishop tells his grandson, Harry, of the great love affair of his youth: At an evening party given by Cornelius Van Tuyl, Tom Armstrong, the son of an aristocratic family and the rector of St. Giles, meets the famous Italian opera star Rita Cavallini and falls in love with her, in spite of rumors that she is Van Tuyl's mistress. Tom persists although his family disapproves of Rita, but at length their romance is ended on another New Year's Eve by mutual agreement because of their differing stations in life. The bishop tells how he later married another woman and counsels Harry to marry the woman he loves regardless of the consequences.