Wall Street financier Frederick Searles goes bankrupt, prompting his mercenary wife to marry their eldest daughter Needa to the wealthy, disreputable John Davis Warren, despite Needa's love for Hugh Stanton. Needa and Warren leave on their honeymoon cruise at the same time that Stanton departs on a mission to salvage torpedoed ships. Adrift for days after his ship goes down, Stanton is picked up by Warren's yacht and hears Needa's tales of her husband's brutality and drunkenness. Back in New York, Warren's mistress hints to him that the baby Needa is expecting may be Stanton's instead of his; enraged, he strikes Needa, causing her baby to be stillborn. Needa leaves her husband and takes a job. Then Warren, unable to persuade Needa to return to him, blames his mistress for poisoning his mind against Needa and threatens to break off with her. The woman shoots and kills Warren, and Needa and Stanton are free to marry.