Pietro Leoni is an artist preoccupied with feminine beauty. While walking near an old castle in Italy, he sees on a rock in the lake the form of a young woman who dives into the water. He rents a house near the spot with the intentions of molding from memory, the figure he saw on the rock. He falls in love with the mentally-disturbed daughter, Francesca Hutton, of the castle's owner, W. C. Hutton, and also becomes involved with the girl's sister, Marisa, but does not know her identity.