During the
First World War, Lilian Hamilton has a brief relationship with an army officer, Colonel Leonard Harvey. Their affair results in an illegitimate child, Mary, but the Colonel leaves for the front and Lilian is forced to give the baby up. The child is later adopted by a wealthy woman, separating mother and daughter. Years later, after the adoptive mother dies, Mary learns about her origins. She eventually makes contact with Lilian, who is now the kept mistress of a bookmaker. Despite her mother's hard and brassy personality, Mary begins to understand Lilian's circumstances and the stigma she faced as an unmarried mother. Mary falls in love with a respectable young man from a higher social class, but she worries that her illegitimate birth and family background will damage his reputation and future. It is revealed that the superior of the young man's employer is Colonel Harvey, the officer who had the wartime affair with Lilian and is Mary's biological father. The Colonel is a decent man and does what he can to remedy the situation, by marrying Lilian and legitimising Mary. ==Cast==