Richard "Dick" Dudgeon is an apostate and outcast from his family in colonial Websterbridge, New Hampshire, who returns their hatred with scorn. After the death of his father, mistakenly hanged by the British as a rebel in nearby Springtown, Dick rescues his body from the gallows, where it had been left as an example to others. He leaves it for burial in the parish graveyard in Websterbridge. Dick then returns to his childhood home to hear the reading of his father's will, much to his family's dismay. His mother, Mrs. Dudgeon, is not happy to see him, deploring the way he has behaved.
Local minister Rev. Anthony Anderson, who is almost arrested for trying to persuade the British to take down the body, treats Dick with courtesy, despite Dick's self-proclaimed apostasy. Dick's "wickedness," however, appalls Anderson's wife, Judith Anderson. To everyone's surprise, Dick's father left the bulk of his estate to Dick, his eldest son. His mother points out that the only wealth her husband had is what she brought to the marriage in a large dowry, but he has left her with nothing. To Dick's shock, his mother then refuses to stay with him and curses him. Dick proclaims himself a rebel against the British and scorns his family as cowards for appeasing the British.
In the meantime, the British discover the father's grave. Anderson warns Dick that the British may arrest him for retrieving the body. He takes Dick home, thinking the British will not look for a disreputable outcast at a minister’s home. While Dick is there, Anderson is called to tend to Dick’s sick mother. Dick is left alone with Judith, despite the social impropriety. Before Anderson’s return, British soldiers enter Anderson's home and arrest Dick, mistaking him for Anderson. They believe Anderson illegally retrieved the body. Dick allows them to take him away without revealing his actual identity. He swears Judith to secrecy lest her husband be arrested for Dick's crime. In a state of great agitation, Judith finds her husband, who asks if Dick has harmed her. Breaking her promise to Dick, Judith reveals that soldiers came to arrest Anderson but Dick went in his place, stunning Anderson. Anderson tells Judith to have Dick keep quiet as long as possible, to give him "more start," then quickly rides away. Judith is unaware that Anderson has gone to seek help from Lawyer Hawkins, secretly the leader of the local rebels, to negotiate giving himself up in exchange for Dick (if Anderson just gave himself up, the British would keep them both). Judith believes her husband to be a coward and now sees Dick, who she previously despised, as a hero. She willingly kisses Dick farewell.
Before a military tribunal, observed by Gen. Burgoyne, Dick is skeptical about British justice, pointing out the scaffolding being built to hang him. He keeps up the pretense of being Anderson during the questioning until Judith tries to save him by revealing that he is not her husband. Regardless of the mistaken identity, Dick has been insulting enough to the British to condemn himself (“When you make up your mind to hang a man you put yourself at a disadvantage with him...I might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb.”). Burgoyne now sarcastically observes to the prosecutor, “I really must congratulate you, Swindon. Despite your deplorable error and the prisoner’s undoubted innocence at the start of the proceedings, you managed to provoke him into guilt by the end of them. A forensic triumph.”
Meanwhile, Anderson decides to abandon his ministry and turn rebel. In Springtown, a battle is going on. Anderson enters a house that the British have commandeered that is next to their ammunition dump. Fighting off British soldiers, Anderson sets fire to the British ammunition dump, which explodes. He then dons the clothes of a Loyalist courier carrying an urgent message from General Howe to General Burgoyne. Reaching the village where Dick is about to be hanged, he presents a safe conduct from General Phillips, who the rebels have captured in Springtown. Terms are the withdrawal of British troops and the immediate release of Richard Dudgeon. Since General Howe is still in New York and not coming for relief, Burgoyne accedes to the demands. Anderson rises in his wife’s esteem, who chooses to remain with him rather than go off with Dick.
