This story revolves around Mary, who becomes an orphan after her mother, who removed her and her siblings to Boston after their father died in England, dies after a protracted illness. Her brother, who has been working himself to death to support them, dies the very same night. Her sister, Ella, is beautiful and blonde, and a rich woman decides she looks so much like her recently-deceased daughter, that she decides to adopt her. Mary, who looks nothing like her sister, is destined for the poor-house, along with her younger sister, Alice, who is sickly.