In the London of 1912, Carol Deane (Daniels) becomes famous for a portrait of her painted by artist Mark Poynton (Arthur Margetson), who is infatuated with her.
She gives birth to a son then with the outbreak of World War I, Lord Robert goes off to fight on the Western Front while Carol becomes a nurse.
Her son grows up knowing nothing of his mother or her crime, and on her release in the late 1920s Carol relocates to New York.
She meets Englishman Francis Scott-Vaughan (Wyndham Goldie) and becomes involved in his shady gambling businesses.
He has the air of a compulsive gambler, and Carol engineers proceedings to prevent him from losing large sums of money in wagers.