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Keith Drummond, a penniless youth from a well-known family, is advised by John Lathrop to put on a wealthy front and work hard in order to be successful. With money borrowed from Lathrop, Keith takes only the first part of the advice and plunges into a social whirl. He marries nouveau riche Helen Baxter, but one day he denounces his whole way of life and leaves to work in the western oil fields. They are reunited when Keith establishes himself and Helen is reduced to poverty.

Prosperous architect David Hunter, lives with his wife Evelyn, who loves gambling and admiration, as well as his small daughter Dora, and his sister-in-law Ruth. When Evelyn tells her husband she owes $10,000 in bridge losses, she promises not to gamble or see her lover, Stephen Dabney, again if he will pay the debt. Stephen's friend, Moira Lamson, however, entices her to the country club for one last game. David and Ruth, worried by her prolonged absence, go to the club where they find her in Stephen's arms. Evelyn accuses her sister of spying on her and demands a divorce from her husband. Ruth, weary of her sister's frailties, moves out of the household and takes up nursing. Evelyn's health suffers from the strain, and now with David and Ruth gone, she is ill and alone. David and Ruth take pity on her and return. A smarter Evelyn is reunited with David.

Because his wife left him for another man, Harman, a banker, loses faith in women. Twenty years later he has stifled his grief and thinks women playthings. He takes deep interest in his clerk, Jack Gray, but, on finding him married, seeks to cause his wife to leave him, believing she is a hindrance to his ambitions. He places her in an apartment, gives her plenty of money without any conditions for three weeks, and also seeks to get Gray interested in other women. Scheme fails, as Mrs. Gray learns the emptiness of such a life. Husband, regardless of appearances, believes in her and takes her back. Broken in spirit and realizing there is true love, Harman is forgiven by the Grays and they bring about a reconciliation with his wife, who is living in poverty.