Young Cedric Errol and his widowed mother live in genteel poverty in 1880s Brooklyn after the death of his father. Cedric's grandfather, the Earl of Dorincourt, has long ago disowned his son for marrying an American. But after the death of the Earl's remaining son, he decides to accept Cedric as his heir. An American boy turns out to be the long-lost heir of a British fortune. He is sent to live with the cold and unsentimental Lord, who oversees the trust.