A stern indictment of the shabby ways in which society treats it recovering ex-criminal class, Die Verrufenene follows the saga of an engineer recently sprung from prison as he attempts to rebuild his life. Having served out his three-year sentence, Robert Kramer embarks on getting back to work and living a clean, honest life. He finds that getting back into society is more difficult than he bargained for, however, when he is shunned by his father and the wealthy family of his ex-fiancee, Gerda. Scraping by in the city slum, working for an indifferent rag maker who prefers to pay in booze over cash, the dejected Robert decides to end it all. He's saved, however, by a kind-hearted prostitute named Emma, who shelters the man in the modest apartment she shares with her ne'er-do-well brother, Gustav. Eventually, Robert starts to patch his life back together through the help of Emma (who becomes enamoured with Robert) and a generous old photographer who employs him as an assistant. His world gets upended once again, however, when Gustav is implicated in the murder of one of Emma's clients.