George Dupont, a studious law school graduate, is seduced by a married family friend, and although he refuses her further advances, he is awakened sexually. George then begins a romance with a seamstress, but his mother and wealthy aunt convince him to marry Henriette Locke, a Senator's daughter. After becoming a partner in the Senator's law firm, George gets drunk with friends and beds a prostitute. Later, he discovers that he has syphilis, and is about to swallow poison, when the prostitute comes along and stops him. She relates that she contracted syphilis from a wealthy man, who remained respected, while she was refused treatment at hospitals. Angered, she decided to infect men from the upper classes, until Dr. Clifford, a venereal disease specialist, helped her. Although Clifford warns George not to marry during the two years of treatment, and shows him syphilitic victims in a hospital ward, including imbecilic children, George, feeling pressure to marry, goes to a quack who promises a cure in three months. After the marriage, George's child is diagnosed as having syphilis. Henriette leaves, and George walks into the sea. *The suicide ending was toned down for the 1915 Mutual release with George merely comtemplating the act.
The film was inspired by Bennett's broadway play and also the novelization by Upton Sinclair the previous year. Produced in Santa Barbara at the end of Bennett's road tour of the play in July, 1914 it received rave reviews.During this period Mutual was American's distributor but the film was not released through Mutual until a full year later.
This was the initial offering of Damaged Goods and done directly by American. Mutual would not release if until 1915 due to a power struggle within the corporation and concerns about the film's content.