A wealthy young society couple loses their fortune. When the husband is forced to take a job like everyone else, the wife cannot deal with the sudden downward plunge of her once-privileged life and drifts into prostitution.

Based on a 1913 play and updated to fit the 1929's stock market crash and resultant depression, Fred Warner is forced to work as a second-hand car salesman after being wiped out by the stock market crash. Confident that his wife, Eve, will be able to adjust to their down-sized life style, Fred soon sees that she is unable to and confronts her as she slips into prostitution.—Les Adams <[email protected]>

Although he is ruined financially, Fred Warner is confident that his wife, Eve, whom he loves dearly, will help him in his struggle to start a new life. Eve, however, addicted to a life of luxury, is terror-stricken at the prospect of poverty. Fred takes a position as a salesman of secondhand automobiles, and Eve becomes fretful in the drudgery of housework. When she goes shopping with Marian Garland, she meets Mrs. Farringdon, unaware that she operates a house of ill repute. Later, Eve incurs her husband's scorn by running up a big bill at the dressmaker's; but when she finds that Pierre is "understanding" with beautiful women, her bill is marked "Paid." Fred takes a new job as rental agent for apartments owned by Mr. Telka; and while waiting for Mrs. Farringdon to sign the lease on her apartment, he sees his wife's picture, and, in despair, makes an appointment to meet her there. Realizing the trick, she declares she no longer loves him, and Fred, driven to frenzy by her scoffing, kills her, then calls the police.