Full of noble aspirations, a young graduate of the American Christian Community, Amelius Goldenhart, comes to his homeland in England. Here he falls in love with Regina, the niece of the wealthy merchant Farneby, but, having learned selfishness and cruelty, the hypocrisy of the world, he gives his heart to the destitute, lonely girl Sally – one of the representatives of the „fallen leaves" of bourgeois society.