An Indian scholar seeks an American colleague who is working on a powerful explosive, trying to get to his formula by taking advantage of his drinking problem.

After inventor Carroll Wayles develops a powerful explosive that may be valuable to the government, Ala Kasarib, an East Indian inventor, comes to America to obtain the formula. He entices Carroll with his ward, Beulah Grey, the daughter of a deceased British Army officer. After Kasarib offers Carroll a drink, Carroll declines, saying he is an alcoholic, and relates his last delirium in which he saw tiny dancing girls in his champagne glass, within the bottle, and as part of the stream of liquor being poured. He cavorted with the nude girls and kept one inside his breast pocket. Kasarib hypnotizes Beulah to get the formula. When Carroll discovers that she gave it to Kasarib, he dejectedly drinks until a vision of the European battlefields sobers him up. At Kasarib's laboratory where Beulah is imprisoned, Carroll's struggle with Kasarib ignites the explosive, killing Kasarib. Now in love, Carroll and Beulah go to Carroll's mother and brother.—AFI