After a handful of happy years of marriage, Nellie meets a chorus girl passing through their tiny town and becomes friends with her.

It is suggested to Nellie by the companies theater manager that she should distance herself from her husband and daughter, so she moves the both of them to a house in Tarrytown, equipped with a maid and a cook.

Having enough of the treatment and embarrassment, Harvey shows up at a party in Nellie’s dressing room wielding a pistol.

During Harvey and Phoebe’s month-long trek back home, Nellie travels to Reno, Nevada, to file for divorce.

Coming out of Fairfax’s charm, she decides to abandon the idea of divorce and go back to her family to care for her daughter.