To please her invalid mother, Mary Melville marries wealthy playboy Claude Varden, but on the eve of their departure for his South American mines, Mary's mother becomes ill and Mary decides to stay with her. Varden has had several affairs with married women in the past, and one woman's husband, Tom Nelson, is on his trail. On board ship, Varden meets the wealthy Nitra Ruiz and her brother Ramon, and already tiring of his marriage, Varden proposes to Nitra. When Mary reads the news that Varden's ship has been wrecked and Varden has died with his fiancée, Nitra Ruiz, she decides never to use the name of Varden again. She then takes a job with John Herrick, a young lawyer who falls in love with her. They are about to be married when Varden reappears on the scene and carries her off to his apartment. He is followed by Ramon, out to avenge his sister who had killed herself over Varden. A fight ensues in which Ramon is killed and Mary escapes. At the trial, Varden is about to be found guilty when Tom Nelson, now a prisoner trustee, stabs him before the jury can announce the verdict. -AFI