Lillian Vale is the naïve and unworldly daughter of minister Josiah Vale. Swept off her feet by handsome Robert Powers, Lillian marries him, unaware that he is constitutionally incapable of fidelity.
Lola Montrose ignores the scorn of society to live with Dr. John Hampton, the man she loves. After tiring of his mistress, Hampton tells Lola that he is planning to marry a "good woman" who will exert the proper influence over his son Irwin.
On the eve of her elopement with Henry Traquair, Margaret Fielding is accidentally discovered in Traquair's apartments by his friends, Captain Richard Haynes and Walter Maxwell.
Perfect angel Willie declines to accompany his doting wife Dolly to a mask ball, but instead of a quiet evening at home among his books, Willie spends the night at an underground casino, and instead of being chaperoned at the party, Dolly is out flirting with another man.
When Mary and Fannie Graham, daughters of a good mother but a father with criminal instincts, are left motherless, Mary flees from her unhappy surroundings while Fannie, inheriting her father's disposition, remains and is raised as a thief.
Duplicity and double crosses run thick and fast when Ben Farraday forces Nan Kennedy to steal documents from Ben’s enemy John Lawson in exchange for his silence about her escapee brother’s whereabouts.