Evelyn Carmichael, a poor widow aware that she is about to die, writes to her wealthy father-in-law Lord Carmichael, who had disowned his son years earlier, pleading that he rescue his granddaughter Geraldine, known as Jerry, from a life in the slums. Lord Carmichael, an avowed woman-hater since his wife disappeared years earlier with his brother, expects Jerry to be a boy and is appalled to find otherwise. However, the lord is won over by Jerry's sweetness, and when Jim Dawson, a neighbor of Jerry's from the tenements, arrives at Carnimore Castle with his daughter Sophia, whom he is trying to pass off as Jerry, the lord exposes them as impostors and then expels them from his castle. Meanwhile, Jerry has also won over the hearts of the servants, whom she is drilling into a play army. One day, while on an excursion into an unused tower of the castle, they discover a locked room in which reside two skeletons.