Idle Tongues plot
"Can your love withstand these babbling tongues?"
Dr. Nye returns to Ostable after serving five years in prison for stealing church funds. Daniel Copeland, brother of the doctor's deceased wife, Fanny, wants to build a municipal water system, but he is opposed by Cyrenus Stone, his arch-enemy. The townspeople, with their tendency to gossip, turn against Dr. Nye, except for Katherine Minot, who loves him. Typhoid fever breaks out, and Dr. Nye believes that the pond water being piped through Copeland's water system is responsible.