Orphan Patience Sparhawk grows up poor until she becomes the ward of the wealthy Miss Tremont. Eventually out of gratitude Patience marries Miss Tremont's nephew, Beverly Peale, out of gratitude only to discover he is a drug user, making their marriage unhappy. When Beverly is found dead from a drug overdose Patience is accused of murder, put on trial and sentenced to die in the electric chair but is saved at the eleventh hour.

Aaron Abrams' daughter Rachel died broken-hearted after her marriage was cruelly annulled by her father-in-law Roger Mortimer, and so years later, his oath of revenge remembered, Abrams has plans to destroy Mortimer's son Russel, unaware and uncaring how the happiness of the people he loves most has became intertwined with the Mortimer family.

The sole support of her invalid mother and young crippled brother, Heloise Broulette is forced to become the mistress of Leland Norton in order to secure the money for an operation to save her mother's life. Mrs. Broulette recovers, but when she discovers the real source of her daughter's income, the news kills her. After her mother's death, Heloise leaves her career behind and goes to the country where she takes a job as a secretary to author Carter Vail, who falls in love with her.

Mrs. Helen Courtland passes a fake check for $25,000 from a millionaire named Woodruffe Clay, who is in love with her daughter Anita. To save the family from a scandal in court, Anita marries Woodruffe, even though she loves Captain Hugh Shannon of the Foreign Legion. During an argument on their wedding night, Woodruffe falls and is seriously injured, and during his recovery, he makes her life miserable. Anita suffers from sleepwalking, and after one episode she dreams of poisoning her husband, she awakens to find him dead. Believing that she killed Woodruffe, Anita travels to Europe with Sarah Harden, her nurse, and there renews her affair with Hugh.