A charismatic city rector becomes drawn into a negligence trial over an industrial accident and into the lives of an injured workman and his attentive wife. Observing the courtroom, he pursues charity and social ethics, visits the workers' neighborhood, and confronts parish politics, disputes with the vestry, and tensions involving a rival lawyer and a manufacturing executive. Personal and ministerial dilemmas deepen into romance, mistaken identity, revenge, and disasters that culminate in a final tragedy, after which characters seek moral and social rehabilitation.