Will Donahue, blacksmith, was a simple-hearted friendly man who loved children, stray cats, and everything lonely and helpless. It was only natural, when the pale, undernourished baby was found wailing in a church, that Will take him to his home, give him a name (Jethro Hammer), and raise him as one of his own children.
After Will’s death, his now fully grown family, selfish to the core, declined to cut Jethro in on the fortune the blacksmith had amassed. The disappearance of Jethro Hammer (which lasted twenty years), his return, his revenge and his death unfold with a dramatic simplicity that well makes felt the embittered strength of the cast off man.