Wealthy orphan Carol Gordon marries the executor of her estate, though she does not love him. Soon afterward, trying to help a friend who is being blackmailed, she is misunderstood by her husband to be herself compromised.
Leon de Severac is fed up with his daughter Jacqueline, who is constantly seducing men. Hoping to discourage her from her flirtatious behavior, he tells her the story of Zareda, an attractive fortune teller who is having an affair with Ivan de Maupin.
On a carnival evening in Nice, when Jeanne Olier is to be engaged to a certain Natahlie Rouhais, a mysterious woman in black enter the room and violently demands the young girl to renounce this marriage.