On account of an urgent business call, Mr. and Mrs. Leslie hurriedly close their summer home at Hudsoncliff and leave with their daughter, Jane, for the city. Bob, their son, decides to visit his parents at Hudsoncliff with his friend, Ralph Lyons. Bob and Ralph find the house locked up and, after some reconnoitering, enter through a window. Ralph hurts his ankle and is unable to attend a dance that evening, so Bob goes instead. Jane, on her arrival in the city, finds she has left her necklace in the safe at their summer home, and leaves a note for her mother, saying she is going back for it.

In a jewelry store, Grace Norris, a wealthy girl, unnoticed by the salesman, absent-mindedly takes a vanity case. She is seen by Fred Wright, who thinks she stole it.

While making preparations for the entertainment of Aunt Maria, who had announced her arrival by telegram, Lila Lane gets herself shut in the storeroom. Here she is found later by her sweetheart, Harry Eschert, who has returned for some forgotten papers.

To start a little in advance of our story, Lord Rintoul, of the English nobility, finds a little Gypsy girl three years old, who had been deserted by her parents. Fifteen years later, Gavin Dishart, the Little Minister, receives an appointment, his first, at Thrums, Scotland. This was made possible through the self-sacrifices of his widowed mother, to educate him for the ministry. The community of Thrums is made up of weavers, who work hard, have little and accomplish much. They are ultra-religious and look upon their pastor with such reverence that he is a little lower than the angels. While naturally intelligent, they are grounded in dogma and intolerance. Just after the Little Minister takes charge of the "Auld Licht Kirk" and the Manse, the weavers resent a reduction, by the manufacturers, in their pay and a strike is declared.