Mrs. E.M. Kimball

Aurora Fernandez, a poor Cuban girl, is persuaded against her will to become betrothed to Don Armada, a wealthy Cuban. She loves Pedro, a young fisherman, who lives with his uncle, Father Venture, and his sister Celida, who has been secretly stealing to Don Armada's villa, but is cast off by him on his engagement to Aurora. Longing for a sight of Pedro, disguised as a dancing girl, Aurora goes to an inn where Pedro comes with other fishermen for a nights revelry.

A young Russian girl is forced into a life of prostitution in Czarist Russia, and she and a British journalist find their lives endangered when she reveals to him information regarding the social crimes rampant in her country.

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.