The film is based on a 1917 Broadway play Branded, by Oliver D. Bailey and was adapted for the screen by Anita Loos and Albert Parker who also directed.

[1][2] As described in a film magazine,[3] Ruth Sawyer (Talmadge) is the unhappy victim of a notorious marriage between her parents.

Her grandfather Judge Whitlock (Fawcett) disowns his son and makes the wife Dot Belmar (Studdiford) swear never to claim her daughter.

Dot decides to hit at the judge through Ruth by breaking her promise and goes to see her at a fashionable boarding school.

Ruth finally is forced to confess, and Douglas puts the wrong light on her explanation and says his faith in her is destroyed.