Foreign powers keep getting their hands on U.S. military secrets, so the head of the American diplomatic corps calls in his nephew Dick Stansbury to help. Stansbury knows that Doctor Montell is at the bottom of this, so he poses as an inventor of an innovative aerial gun. This sparks the doctor's interest, and when they both attend a weekend party at the Ryerson estate, Montell tries to get Stansbury to sell the gun to his country.

After his divorce Robert Collingwood loses his fortune in Wall Street and becomes mentally unstable. He then attempts to harm his daughter, Gail, but dies in a fall. Fifteen years later, Gail, now a reporter, becomes involved with a man named Thorne, who is also known as Edward North. Thorne is later revealed to be the man who had an affair with Collingwood's wife.

Artist Standish using his wife Mary as his model finishes a painting of the Madonna. When the Connoisseur and the Parishioner inspect the picture, the Connoisseur tells Standish that the model was a one-time paramour. Buying the painting they depart. Standish confronts Mary, who tells him that she believed herself legally married to the Connoisseur. Unbelieving he ejects her and their baby son. Penniless Mary leaves her boy on the steps of a monastery. Years later before becoming a monk the boy is sent to see the world. Wandering into a café he is seduced by Beauty as the other inmates of the place, Lust, Rum, Avarice and Passion dance around him. The proprietor enters; it is Mary. Recognizing the crucifix, she left with him as a baby she persuades him to go back without revealing her identity. After he becomes a priest Mary, now a bedraggled old woman enters his church. She recognizes him and just before she dies her son gives her absolution.