Prominent French diplomat Emile Coullard is preparing an important international trade agreement. When Belloc appears at Coullard's country home to help prepare the document, it becomes evident that Belloc had met Marguerite, Coullard's charming wife, before. It later develops that Belloc had deceived and taken advantage of Marguerite when she was an innocent girl just out of a convent. Fernand, the illegitimate product of the union, had been raised by her friend, attorney De Brionne who, on his deathbed, declares that henceforth Marguerite should care for her grown child, now a notorious drinker. Marguerite arranges for Coullard to take Fernand as his secretary. Meanwhile, Belloc attempts to obtain the secret agreement in order to sell the information to a stock brokerage that could then make a killing on the market. Belloc forces Marguerite to open the safe by threatening to expose her past. A fight ensues with Fernand, and in attempting to escape, Belloc falls from a window to his death. Coullard eventually discovers everything, but forgives Marguerite of her past mistakes.—AFI