An orphan in early 19th century England escapes the poorhouse only to fall among a gang of pickpockets in London.

James Rallston, facing financial hardship, marries a wealthy invalid widow with a daughter, Jean, and plots to control her fortune. He orchestrates her confinement in a sanitarium by drugging her and falsely claiming she is insane, with the help of a conniving doctor and sanitarium keeper. Fifteen years later, Rallston has lost Jean's fortune through speculation and seeks help from John Bigelow to recover it, offering Jean as a reward. Bigelow, suspicious of Rallston, discovers the truth about the widow and Jean's father, and rescues the widow from the sanitarium.

Nouveau riche Isidore Lechat, who lives in a castle in the south of France, believes that business is the most important thing, but remains attached to his children. Lechat, who does not let his wife appear at banquets because of her slovenly appearance, begins an affair in Paris with Celeste St. Jean, a friend of his dissolute son Xavier. Lechat offers to pay Xavier's debts if he gets his friend's father, the Minister of War, to lift restrictions on the operation of a mine in French Africa which Lechat optioned.