When her husband George leaves suddenly for Australia to find work, Helen Talboys, unaware of his whereabouts, assumes that he has deserted her and marries an aristocrat to become Lady Audley. When her look-alike maid dies, Lady Audley conveniently passes off the corpse as Helen Talboys to avoid any possible bigamy charges. After having made his fortune in gold, George returns from Australia and by accident meets up with his wife at her stepson's villa. Determined to reclaim her, he begins to struggle with her. In the ensuing tussle, Lady Audley throws George down a well and, believing that he is dead, flees. Fearful that her stepson will expose her, Lady Audley breaks into his apartment and steals some incriminating love letters that she had written to George. As her guilty conscience grows, her acts become more desperate until George, who was rescued from the well by the coachman, makes a timely appearance and causes her to fall dead from fright.
—Pamela Short