Once fired from her housemaid post with the MacFarland family, whose son she loved deeply, Lula Borrow falls into street-peddling, religious fanaticism, and direly ill health. Lula Borrow barely escapes her abusive husband, whose maltreatment kills one of their two children. Her sole reprieve is a housemaid post with the MacFarland family, whose son she loves deeply, and when she is fired she falls into street-peddling, religious fanaticism, and direly ill health.

When a family finds a child in their yard buried in snow and suffering from frostbite, they try to warm him up to save his life. The child eventually awakes and tells them that his family is in danger, and so two men and a boy venture out to save their neighbors, if they can make it through the deep snow without freezing.