Camille is a courtesan in Paris. She falls deeply in love with a young man of promise, Armand Duval. When Armand's father begs her not to ruin his hope of a career and position by marrying Armand, she acquiesces and leaves her lover. However, when poverty and terminal illness overwhelm her, Camille discovers that Armand has not lost his love for her.
Princess Triloff, an emigrée from Czarist Russia, escapes to America where she becomes a patron of the arts. She falls in love with the verses of impoverished poet Owen Carey and becomes his anonymous benefactor. When Owen inherits a fortune from his rich Uncle Krakerfeller, he assumes his uncle's identity and confers his own upon an impoverished friend, Frank Manners. At a resort, Owen meets the princess and falls in love with her, but is chagrined to discover that she is enamored with Manners. The princess finally discovers Owen's real identity and the two fall in love.
British bank cashier Eldred Caldwell lives with his wife on the edge of the Arabian desert. One day a man named Richard Manners appears at their doorstep. He has some incriminating information about Eldred, who is so devastated he disappears, an apparent suicide. His wife flees into the desert, with Manners in hot pursuit. She is taken in by an unlikely rescuer and years later, after she becomes a nurse when World War I ends, she makes a startling discovery.
