Wastrel New York millionaire Roland Van Dam travels to New Orleans during Mardi Gras, looking for adventure and romance. Because the costume he is wearing includes a red gardenia, he is mistaken for escaped prisoner Emile Le Duc by a woman (who turns out to be a long-lost cousin) who was to meet Le Duc, who was to be wearing a red gardenia. It turns out that Le Duc is the head of a vicious gang of counterfeiters, and Roland winds up getting in more adventures than he had hoped for.
A physician is dragged down to the depths by the drug habit, losing position and wealth. After pawning every available possession except a revolver to satisfy his craving for the drug, he returns to his cheap lodging house to end his life. Half stupefied, he gets into the wrong room, where he finds a woman and daughter almost starved. He takes his revolver and pawns it to buy food for them. His own act of kindness gives him a new view of life and he struggles to break his habit. Many times he almost falls again, but is aided by a nurse whom he had known years before. Finally he throws off the yoke altogether and wins back to manhood and the love of a woman.
