When bored courtesan Zelie de Chaumet begs her lover, the corrupt and powerful Stetz, to take her slumming, the pair encounter Pierre Boucheron, alias 'The Rat' , boy-king of the Paris underworld, and the innocent Odile. Love, life and jewels are risked and lost in this powerful romantic melodrama as the four characters' lives are changed by this chance encounter for ever.

A quack doctor 'cures' a victim of venereal disease, whose baby is later born infected.

A jilted aunt refuses to let her niece marry a violinist's nephew.

A poor author has an engaged girl pose as his wife to please his dying father.

A rich woman refuses to bear her husband a child, but adopts a son by his mistress after his death.

A henpeck man inherits a fortune and starts a club for women-haters.

Retired actress poses as dresser to scare murderer into confessing and clearing her son.

'1860-1910. Life of a mayor's daughter if she married (a) a rich baronet; (b) a poor shopkeeper; (c) nobody.' (British Film Catalogue)

When a Lord and family are shipwrecked on an island their butler becomes a king.