Because he had previously picked the name James for his first-born, when a female arrives, Major Milligan, a well-meaning but lazy dreamer, calls his daughter Jamesina, or Jemmy for short. With the birth of her second child, Mrs. Milligan dies, and several years later, when Jemmy is about eighteen, the Major marries a widow with three children. Soon the family is deeply in debt. Jemmy gets work at a textile factory, gets jobs for the other children, and even inspires the Major to work. She falls in love with Stanley Templeton, an aviator on furlough, but because his mother disapproves, Jemmy refuses to marry him. After Stanley returns to the war, Jemmy captures a German spy in the plant who was soaking cloth for airplanes in acid. She receives a reward which allows the Milligans to pay off their mortgage. Mrs. Templeton apologizes, and when Stanley returns, she warmly approves of their engagement.