Boardinghouse servant Adele Clark is unexpectedly awarded the ownership of a certain piece of New York City property known as Clark's Field. The trustees send her to a finishing school, whose headmistress, Signorina Vitale, persuades Adele and her sweetheart, Tim Sullivan, that she should travel in Europe. Adele's new riches cause her to lose her sense of proportion, and she soon is involved with a fast set indulging in the jazz life. Even Tim cannot curb Adele's extravagance, and he returns to America while Adele marries Italian fortune-hunter Prince Arnolfo Da Pescia. When a will is discovered naming Tim as the rightful heir to Clark's Field, Adele and Arnolfo hurry to New York, and Arnolfo tries to steal the will, then dies in a hotel fire. All dispute over the land is ended when Tim and Adele are united.—Pamela Short
For generations the Clarks have been poor. The only thing of potential value the family has is a couple of acres of undeveloped land on the Brooklyn waterfront, known as "Clark's Field." A legal dispute over a will that old Peter Clark had left tied up the property so that for all practical purposes it remained worthless. Adele, the last of the Clarks, grows into a lovely young woman, struggling against poverty. She slaves away, day after day, in her aunt's boarding house. Adele's life is made bearable by her romance with Tim Sullivan, a hard-working young contractor. When Adele's aunt dies, the dispute over the will is cleared up, and Adele suddenly finds herself at a fashionable boarding school, with millions to her name. Tim calls on her at the school, with an engagement ring in his pocket. But a talk with Signorina Vitale, the school's scheming head-mistress, convinces him that Adele needs a trip abroad more than she needs a husband. So Adele and a small party head for Italy, where she becomes recklessly extravagant. Tim goes to Italy to try to curb her spending, but is unsuccessful. The pair quarrel, and Tim returns home. Adele falls for the charms of Prince Arnolfo, a fortune-hunting nobleman. A Medieval costume ball is held, complete with gondolas, flowers, lanterns, and mandolins. At one point, Arnolfo and another nobleman engage in a duel for the affections of Adele. Before she realizes it, Adele is tricked into marrying Arnolfo. Back in America, an old will is discovered which threatens to take the fortune from Adele and give it to the Sullivans, of whom Tim is the sole heir. The Prince and Adele return to America. Arnolfo plots to gain possession of the will and destroy it, while Adele tells Tim how she was tricked into a marriage which has caused her nothing but misery. Arnolfo manages to obtain the will through bribery and is about to set it on fire when Adele makes a heroic attempt to stop him. In the struggle that follows, the room is set on fire. Tim rescues Adele, but Arnolfo, trying to save his own life, falls to his death.
