Theda Bara plays the social-climbing Olga Dolan, who becomes the Duchess of Rutledge by means of deception and sheer ruthlessness. Sadly, Bara, who had more or less single-handedly begun the "vamp" craze with the prototype of the genre, A Fool There Was, went out with little more than a whisper. She left films after the ironically titled The Lure of Ambition, and was lured back only twice, in: The Unchastened Woman (1925), a poverty row concoction which had few takers, and Madame Mystery (1926)

Story of a factory worker who is fired because she tries to protect one of her fellow employees from the lusty advances of their boss. She then joins forces with a crook and becomes his mistress. Although she winds up in jail because he stashed some of his stolen goods at her home, she escapes by flirting with the warden and then drugging him.

A young man proposes a lottery with himself as the prize in marriage. However he finds himself very much in love with a woman other than the winner.

Jealous Ben attempts to destroy the engagement of his alcoholic brother, Dick, to the teetotaler Hattie by repeatedly sabotaging Dick's sobriety and even attempting physical harm. Despite Ben's numerous, escalating interventions—including framing Dick for assault and attempting to force a divorce after their wedding—the couple overcomes his sabotage. The story concludes with Hattie employing a unique visualization method during pregnancy to ensure her child avoids the family curse of drink.

An ambitious bank teller (Edward Jose) steals a large deposit and starts life over under an assumed name. While he is becoming a lawyer and making his way up the ladder of success with the help of a political boss, the wife he left behind (Eleanor Woodruff) remains destitute and is forced to give up her child to an orphanage. The girl is adopted and grows up (played as an adult by Virginia Pearson) to become the secretary to an honest young lawyer. But the girl has the same quirk that her father had, and it causes her to steal a bracelet at a department store. She is arrested and finds herself before her father, who is now a judge.

Crooked banker Peter V. Wilkinson intentionally drives his own company into bankruptcy and puts the bank's deposits into a secret account he has set up using his daughter Leslie's name. A series of events occurs in which Leslie finds out what her father has done and sets out to get him to return all the money he has stolen.

A gypsy girl brought up by a Scottish Lord is arrested for rioting escapes jail and refugee with a young Minister who falls in love with her.

Lea Montrose marries Dorian Vandeveer, but soon finds that he is a drunk. Dorian tries without success to reform and Lea abandons any hopes for her marriage. Instead she joins a cult headed by Dr. Studholm Charters. One of Lea's former boyfriends, Jack Harley, returns to town, having become wealthy, and he and Lea rekindle their relationship.