Richard Haley, a little son of the South, fell one day and cut a deep gash on his forehead, which the doctor declared would leave a scar for life. Richard loved one of the old slaves, and when he saw him being beaten by the brutal overseer he resolved to run away to the North, where the black people were not ill-treated. He got into his boat and drifted all night down the stream. In the morning the boat was pulled ashore by some Northern fisherfolk, who brought up the little boy as their own. As soon as he reached manhood Richard enlisted in the Northern army, for the Civil War had broken out. His mother sent the boy's father off to war, begging him to look out for the lost boy, whom he would know by the scar on his forehead. Her husband was killed. Almost crazed by the news, she sat every night with a loaded gun before the window in which the light was always burning. Richard was sent to reconnoiter in the neighborhood of his old home. Cautiously approaching the house he was shot from the window by his mother, who took him for a spy. His body is recognized by the old slave whom he had loved, but the mother never knew that her watch was ended, and continued, even after the coming of peace to place a light every night in the window.
—Moving Picture World synopsis