Plot Summary:Four-year-old Dorothy, the daughter of rich lawyer Winfred North, is inconsolable over the recent death of her mother. Her father, too absorbed with business to pay attention to his daughter and her problems, marries Helen Stilwell, a widow with two children of her own. Helen, in turn, ignores Dorothy while taking care of her own children, treating Dorothy as if she's always \"in the way\". Finally Dorothy can take no more and runs away. She is found by the Goodwins, a married missionary couple, but when they bring her home, Helen Stillwell denies knowing Dorothy at all, seeing a chance for her own children to inherit Winfred's wealth and cut Dorothy out of the picture altogether. The Goodwins take Dorothy to Africa with them, to bring Christianity to the natives, but matters don't work out quite as well as they expected.