- Clancy Deane, who leaves her home in Ohio for a career on the New York stage, makes the acquaintance of the Webers, tools of Maurice Beiner, a blackmailer operating under the cover of a theatrical agency. While in Beiner's office seeking an engagement, Clancy witnesses his being stunned by a fall over a table. She leaves by a window, and on the fire escape she encounters Mrs. Carey, who wants to secure some letters. When Beiner's murder is investigated, Mrs. Carey is implicated but is released after examination. Judge Walbrough is knocked out by an unknown assailant, whose fingerprints are identical with those on the knife that killed Beiner. Following numerous complications, Don Carey, a dissolute alcoholic who kills himself, is revealed as the murderer. Clancy marries Philip Vandevent, and Judge Walbrough wins Sophie Carey.—AFI
- Sophie Carey, a popular singer, attends a hotel dinner party, which her friend Judge Walbrough is also attending. Walbrough informs Sophie that friendly letters she had written to him have been stolen. Since Sophie is married, she is afraid she may be blackmailed. At the same party, Clancy Deane, a country girl, is with Marc and Fay Weber. Clancy is trying for a career on the stage. The Webers are called to the lobby, where they meet Morris Beiner, a theatrical agent. Beiner informs the couple that he has the stolen Carey letters, and wants the Webers to help him extort money from Sophie and the judge. When the Webers refuse, there is an altercation, and the couple escape from the hotel. When the waiter presents the check to Clancy, she is unable to pay for it. Assistant D.A. Philip Vandevent, another guest at the party, comes to her rescue, and gives her the money, along with his card.
The following day, Clancy goes to Beiner's office to see if he can get her an engagement. She gives her address as the same hotel where the Webers are staying. Beiner suspects she is a spy for Marc Weber. He locks the door and attacks Clancy, but he trips over his desk, hits his head and is knocked unconscious. Clancy unlocks the door, hears someone coming, and climbs out the fire escape. The next day, Clancy learns that Beiner was stabbed to death in his office and that the police are seeking a woman. She goes to Vandevent's office to tell him what she knows, and finds Sophie there. Vandevent shows Sophie a piece of a woman's dress that was found clutched in Beiner's hand. Sophie recognizes that it came from one of her gowns, and faints. Clancy helps Sophie home and the two become friends.
Sophie's husband, Don Carey, is a drunkard and has been away from home for weeks. Sophie throws a party and lends Clancy a dress. A detective, investigating the murder, recognizes the dress as the one matching the fragment found in Beiner's hand. He chases Clancy, but she escapes. When she returns to Sophie's house, she finds things in turmoil, as Don Carey has returned, drunk. Sophie confesses to Clancy that she did visit Beiner the day of his murder, to try to get the letters from him. She discovered him just regaining consciousness from his fall. He reached for her, caught her dress and tore it. Then she fled. The detective finds the Webers who have been in hiding, and compares their fingerprints to those on the knife that killed Beiner; but there is no match. Walbrough arrives at Sophie's house, and is struck over the head with a cane wielded by an unknown assailant. The fingerprints on the cane match those on the knife. A shot rings out from Don Carey's room. When the door is broken down, Carey is found dead from a self-inflicted wound.
In the fireplace, the letters from Sophie to the judge are burning. After examining the prints on the gun, the detective concludes that Carey killed Beiner. Carey had stolen the letters to give to Beiner in order to extort money from the judge. But when Carey had discovered that Beiner was going to extort money from Sophie as well, he killed the blackmailer to get the letters back.
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