While visiting the town of Chichester one day, a British lieutenant named Montraville sees a pretty young woman named Charlotte Temple. Struck by her beauty, Montraville leaves Chichester but can’t stop thinking about Charlotte, so he returns three days later and goes to Charlotte’s boarding school. He’s about to lose his nerve when he sees Charlotte exiting the school grounds with Mademoiselle La Rue, a young teacher at the school. He approaches La Rue, charms her, and slips a letter into Charlotte’s hands. He also gives La Rue money to secure her silence. In turn, La Rue agrees to sneak Charlotte out of the school the following evening to spend time with Montraville.
Charlotte comes from a loving family. Her father, Mr. Temple, is a generous person who met his wife, Lucy, while helping lift her family out of ruin. Mr. Temple had a respectable inheritance, but he liked to use it for good. For this reason, his friend introduced him to Lucy’s father, Captain Eldridge, who at the time was living in debtor’s prison. Eldridge explained to Mr. Temple that he found himself in serious debt after accepting money from his son George’s wealthy friend, Mr. Lewis. At first, Mr. Lewis had been extremely generous to the Temple family, but then Eldridge realized the young man was interested in his daughter, Lucy. He also learned that Lewis had no plans to actually marry Lucy—he just wanted her to be his lover. Eldridge refused to give Lewis his permission to pursue a relationship with Lucy, so Lewis responded by saying that Eldridge had to immediately repay his debt. Because Eldridge didn’t have the money, Lewis had him imprisoned.
When George heard what Lewis—his own friend—did to his family, he challenged him to a duel. Meanwhile, his mother fell gravely ill from the shock of Eldridge’s imprisonment. George ended up dying in the duel, and the news of his death killed his mother, too.
Struck by Eldridge’s tragic story, Mr. Temple resolved to help him. He couldn’t bear the idea of such a respectable man spending his life in prison, nor could he stomach the idea of Lucy—whom he found attractive—spending her days visiting her father in jail. He therefore decided he didn’t need much money to live a happy life, so he dipped into his inheritance and repaid all of Eldridge’s debt. His own father didn’t approve of this decision, especially since he didn’t like the idea of Temple marrying Lucy, since the marriage wouldn’t bring the family any wealth. Nonetheless, Temple went through with the plan and eventually married Lucy. Together, they established a happy and frugal life on a small farm, where they raised Charlotte. When she reached the appropriate age, they sent her to boarding school, where she now studies under Madame Du Pont.
Although Madame Du Pont runs a respectable school, she made the mistake of employing Mademoiselle La Rue—a disgraced former nun who ran away from her convent with a man she didn’t end up marrying. La Rue lived with multiple different men out of wedlock, but she claims to have reformed herself. However, she’s eager to encourage Charlotte to secretly spend time with Montraville. When Montraville first intercepts them, they’re on their way to see another group of men—an outing La Rue convinced Charlotte to go on with her. When they return, Charlotte tries to tell La Rue that she won’t be doing anything like that again; she didn’t like the way La Rue spoke to the men, believing her teacher behaved inappropriately. But La Rue manipulates Charlotte by breaking down and talking about how she (La Rue) deserves whatever punishment Madame Du Pont might heap on her if Charlotte tells her that they snuck out. She knows what it’s like to experience shame, so she can take it again—even if that means getting thrown onto the streets. Hearing these dramatic words, Charlotte assures La Rue she won’t say anything.
Still, Charlotte says she won’t read Montraville’s letter and won’t meet him the next day, but La Rue makes her feel guilty. She says Montraville will probably die on the battlefield in America, implying that reading his letter is the least Charlotte can do. Charlotte breaks down and reads it, promising herself she won’t respond. And yet, it doesn’t take much more convincing by La Rue to persuade her to meet Montraville the following evening.
Montraville arrives the next night with his friend Belcour, who takes an interest in La Rue. Charlotte remains hesitant and plans to end things with Montraville, but when he reminds her that he’ll soon be leaving for America and might die in battle, she agrees to meet him yet again. Her promise to return pleases Montraville immensely, even though he has no intention of marrying her. In fact, he knows he can’t marry her, since his family isn’t rich and neither is hers—he needs to find a wealthy spouse. Nonetheless, he doesn’t think about the future, instead focusing on the immediate pleasure of sneaking around with Charlotte.
Over the next week, Charlotte spends every evening with Montraville. He tries to convince her to accompany him to America, but she says her parents would never approve. Hearing this, Belcour butts in and urges her to make the journey—he will be going to America, too, and La Rue has agreed to come with him. Montraville, Belcour, and even La Rue pressure Charlotte to go to America, and she eventually gives in.
On the day she’s set to leave, Charlotte changes her mind. When she tells La Rue, though, her teacher manipulates her into at least telling Montraville herself that she can’t go to America. Inevitably, Montraville once again talks her out of staying, and she ends up jumping into the carriage and going with the others to the harbor, where they board a ship bound for America. The ship stays in the harbor for several days, giving Charlotte time to regret her decision. She writes a letter to her parents explaining where she has gone, but Montraville secretly rips it up and throws it overboard. He doesn’t want her parents to know where she has gone. Without any word from her loving parents, Charlotte is distraught.
La Rue meets a rich man named Crayton on the passage to America. Although Belcour said he’d marry her when they reached land, La Rue can already tell he was lying, so she endears herself to Crayton. She tells him Belcour tricked her into traveling abroad. Taking pity, Crayton takes her under his wing, and by the time the ship reaches America, he has promised to marry her himself. None of this bothers Belcour, who has quickly lost interest in La Rue. Instead, he sets his sights on Charlotte, hoping to steal her away from Montraville whenever the chance arises.
Once they reach America, Montraville rents a small house for Charlotte outside New York. However, he often goes away for long periods. She waits desperately for him to return, but his visits never last long—especially after he meets Julia Franklin, a beautiful, wealthy woman whom he begins to court. At one point, he visits Charlotte and tells her that he’ll be gone for a long time—news that wracks her with despair. She desperately misses her family and thinks they’ve disowned her, since they haven’t replied to any of her letters.
During this period of sorrow, Belcour sees an opportunity and starts visiting Charlotte quite frequently. Meanwhile, La Rue has become Mrs. Crayton and now lives in New York, where it has become obvious to everyone that she isn’t the charming and kind person she pretended to be. Mr. Crayton’s daughter, Mrs. Beauchamps, is especially upset about La Rue’s marriage to her father, but she can’t do anything about it. Instead, she directs her attention to Charlotte; Mrs. Beauchamps has a country house near Charlotte’s home, and she often hears her crying. Even though everyone avoids Charlotte, Mrs. Beauchamps visits her one day and asks what’s wrong. Charlotte tells her everything, and Mrs. Beauchamps is devastated to learn that her own mother-in-law, La Rue, played such a big role in leading Charlotte astray.
Suspecting that Montraville has intercepted the letters Charlotte has written to her parents, Mrs. Beauchamps offers to mail one herself. Deeply grateful, Charlotte pens a heartfelt note explaining her many regrets and asking her parents to forgive her. In this letter, she reveals that she’s pregnant with Montraville’s child, begging her parents for help—if they won’t forgive her, she hopes they’ll forgive her unborn baby, who has done nothing wrong.
Meanwhile, Montraville realizes Julia would accept a marriage proposal from him. But he feels too guilty to abandon Charlotte—until, that is, he visits her one day and finds Belcour sleeping next to her in bed. He assumes Charlotte and Belcour are having an affair, but the truth is simply that Belcour snuck into bed with Charlotte, knowing Montraville would leave her if he saw Charlotte lying with Belcour. Sure enough, Montraville storms off and vows never to speak to Charlotte again. Belcour thinks he has succeeded; he even convinces Montraville to marry Julia Franklin. When he tells Charlotte about Montraville’s marriage, though, she’s so distraught that she falls ill. Belcour visits her for several days, trying to make her feel better, but he soon loses interest and stops coming.
Around this time, Charlotte’s landlady evicts her because she’s behind on rent. Charlotte is forced to leave the house that very night in the middle of a snowstorm. She can’t even turn to Mrs. Beauchamps, since her friend is away. She thus decides to trek toward New York, and though the journey is hard, she makes it without freezing to death. Hoping La Rue will show compassion, she goes to the Crayton household and begs to be let in, but Mrs. Crayton (La Rue) pretends she doesn’t know Charlotte.
Thankfully, a servant takes pity and brings Charlotte home to his cramped apartment, where she goes into labor. After giving birth, Charlotte becomes discombobulated and can only speak nonsense. She stays at the servant’s house for many days while a doctor attends to her. At one point, the doctor pays a house visit to Mrs. Beauchamps for an unrelated matter and tells her about Charlotte, though he doesn’t use her name. Moved by the story, Mrs. Beauchamps pays a visit and realizes it’s Charlotte. She helps put the place in order and pays the kind servant for his good deed, but even though Charlotte comes to her senses, the doctor says she’ll soon die. Just before she passes away, Mr. Temple arrives at the door—he and Lucy received Charlotte’s letter, and he has come to take her home. Hearing his voice, Charlotte jumps out of bed and jumps into his arms. They both faint from the shock of seeing each other.
Both Charlotte and Mr. Temple regain consciousness, but Charlotte soon dies while looking into her father’s eyes. A few days later, Montraville comes to town in search of Charlotte—he feels terrible about what he has done, but he becomes especially upset when he walks by a funeral and realizes that Charlotte is the person being lowered into the ground. He bows to Mr. Temple, reveals his identity, and tells him to kill him, but Mr. Temple refuses: Montraville’s guilt will be his punishment.
Sure enough, Montraville lives the rest of his life in a deep depression, though not before seeking out Belcour and murdering him for failing to care for Charlotte in his absence. The Temple family, on the other hand, manages to move on. Mr. Temple brings Charlotte’s daughter back to England, where he and his wife raise her as their own child. One day, they find a destitute old woman shivering on their doorstep. They let her in, only to discover that the old woman is La Rue. Her marriage ended several years ago, and she has spent the intervening time living a life of disgrace, which has led her to extreme poverty. She admits to treating Charlotte poorly, but Mr. Temple still feeds her and checks her into a hospital, where she dies the next day.
