- A wild magician with hypnotic power captures a lovely art model from the Latin Quarter and turns her into a concert singer. Her student lover has almost given up finding her when he luckily sees her on stage.
- Trilby lives in the Latin Quarter of Paris. She is a beautiful artist's model. She loves Little Billie, a young English art student from an aristocratic family. He is studying under the guidance of two older artists, Taffy and "The Laird." Trilby spends happy times with Billie and his mentors. She loves to sing and has a powerful voice, but she is tone deaf. Billie discovers Trilby posing nude for a large art class, and becomes disillusioned. He leaves Paris, but eventually returns because he still loves Trilby. Meanwhile, Trilby forsakes the model's life, and returns to her former job at a laundry. She meets Svengali, an unkempt musical genius with a magnetic personality. Svengali is accompanied by Gecko, a meek violinist, who is dominated by Svengali. When Svengali cures Trilby's headache, she succumbs to his hypnotic power. This causes Billie and his friends to become concerned. Billie's mother and his reverend uncle from England visit Trilby, and plead with the girl not to jeopardize Billie's career by marrying him. Trilby promises to end their affair. She then falls victim to Svengali's influences. Trilby leaves the city with him. He predicts a great musical career for her. Her disappearance worries Billie, who searches frantically for her, without success. A few months later, Europe is startled by the marvelous singing of "Mme. Svengali," who appears under the direction of her "husband." Billie, Taffy, and The Laird attend a performance and think they recognize Trilby as the singer. But because of the quality of her voice, they hesitate to believe the singer is Trilby, remembering her former ludicrous efforts to sing. During the intermission, they are snubbed by the singer, which again causes them to doubt her identity. Svengali insults Billie, who is saved by Taffy's interference. The three friends return to the audience. Svengali, having suffered a heart attack due to exertion with Billie and his friends, does not direct the latter portion of the program. Instead, he seats himself in a box in the theater. Trilby appears on stage, and suddenly loses her purity of voice. The audience jeers. Then Svengali is discovered dead. The three friends rush to Trilby, who has collapsed, and realize her true identity. Trilby remembers nothing of her musical triumphs. Broken in health, she dies, murmuring Svengali's name with her last breath.
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