The film's storyline was set in the colonial period of the United States in the early 1770s.Although film reviews and news items about Lady Babbie do not identify a specific British-ruled American colony for the story's setting, it could be surmised that it was either New York or Virginia, both of which were actually administered on separate occasions by a real Governor Dunmore in the early 1770s. Reviews and plot summaries of the featurette published in late 1913 and 1914 describe the portrayal of a romance set within a province marked by public opposition to the local government. The story involves Lord Primton (Frederick C. Truesdell), an important landowner who lives on his estate with his widowed sister (Julia Stewart) and her niece, Lady Babbie (Barbara Tennant). The nobleman despises a new, exorbitant tax levied on citizens by Governor Dunmore. To gather allies to discuss a plan of action against the tax, Primton invites his friends to a lawn party, hoping such a common social event will not arouse the suspicions of government officials. At the party a young British officer, Lieutenant Byron, meets Lady Babbie and falls immediately and deeply in love with the beautiful woman. Their obvious attraction for one another is resented by her fiancé, who is an army officer as well. Rising jealousies soon prompt the fiancé to challenge Byron to a duel. When Babbie learns of the challenge, which is to take place at midnight at a nearby crossroads, she tries to stop it. She disguises herself in men's clothing, goes to Byron, and pleads with him not to fight. Her fiancé finds them together again, becomes furious, and draws his sword. Byron counters with his own sword, and in the ensuing clash he kills the fellow officer.
