James Sheridan becomes wealthy and a power in a middle west city, where his entire life is absorbed in the turmoil of his own creation. The only thing he lacks is social standing, and this he strives to gain by methods he has successfully employed in driving a business deal.

One day Coventry Petmore leaves his wife and child to go out in the world and fight the social evils of divorce and loveless marriage. Circumstances lead him to the home of Judge Mitchell, where the judge's son, a minister, and his wife Beatrice reside. The minister does not believe in expressing affection to his wife, and Beatrice becomes enamored of her chauffeur Larry Price.

After five years of repressed protest, Norma, wife of Dr. Hugh Ellis, a moderately successful physician, suddenly voices denunciation regarding the average position of the American wife in the average American home today wherein she is compelled to be entirely answerable to her husband in expenditures for household and petty needs.