- Although he is a successful architect, devoted family man Robert Crewe does not earn enough to cover the expenses of his wife Marion and daughter Emily. Unknown to him, his Uncle Abner wants to ruin him because Robert's father stole Abner's fiancée, who died in childbirth after their marriage. Abner hires a beautiful seductress to break up Robert's happy home, but she is unsuccessful. Abner, who dies prematurely, leaves Robert his fortune, hoping that it finally will lead to Robert's downfall. As Robert and Marion drift apart, Emily is left in the hands of an uncaring nurse and cries herself to sleep each night. Robert has an affair with a Broadway actress and Marion becomes romantically involved with a prominent sculptor. Robert squanders his inheritance and involves himself in highly speculative business investments until, threatened with Emily's death, he and Marion finally decide to change their lives and bring the family back together once again.—Pamela Short
- On his deathbed, old Abner Crewe wills his entire fortune, $5,000,000, to his nephew, Robert. The legacy is made in the spirit of revenge because Robert's father loved and won the girl old Abner himself sought to marry. Then his mother died in giving birth, which was a double reason why old Abner disliked the young man Robert, an ambitious young architect in New York City, with a fine wife and beautiful child, has everything to live for. In making his will, old Abner chuckles as he tells his attorney: "He has a good little wife and baby, something to work for, eh? We dump these millions in his lap. What happens? Their entire life is changed. They move to new quarters, they plunge into the swirl of gay society. With no need of work, his ambition dies; he becomes an idle, dissipated man about town. Their home life is disrupted, sooner or later will come the crash. Wait and see. I'll give them two years." When Robert receives the money, all of his uncle's prophesies come true. The young couple move to better quarters and enter society. Robert meets Suzanne, a Broadway siren, with whom he becomes infatuated. He abandons his work and forgets his wife and child. The child, deserted by its parents, is left to the care of servants more and more. Marion becomes infatuated with a society portrait painter, who has his studio apartment in the same building where Robert's mistress lives. After considerable urging, Marion agrees to visit the painter's studio to pose for her portrait. Nothing serious happens until one evening, after receiving a 'phone call from Robert to the effect that he would have to spend the night in the city, Marion, more out of pique than anything else, motors into town to meet the painter in his apartment. The two couples come face to face in the hallway of the apartment house, as Marion is coming in. There is a scene and both agree to separate. Things go from bad to worse. Robert loses a great deal of money in his speculations and while attempting to recover some of the money he lavished on his mistress to help him out, there is a telephone call. It is for Robert. The butler at the Crewe home knew the 'phone number of Robert's clandestine establishment to use in case of emergency. The butler is greatly agitated. The Crewe child is dying and the butler is unable to get Mrs. Crewe, who is attending a ball at a neighboring country club. He rushes in his motor car to the bedside of his child, then leaves to get Marion. Disheveled and wild of eye, he brushes aside the doorman and other servants and reaches the ballroom. His wife is gaily dancing. Heedless of the sensation he is causing, Robert pushes out upon the crowded floor, tears his wife and her partner apart and breaks the news to her. They both return to their child and watch carefully over her. The crisis in the child's illness passes, the doctor announces she is out of danger, Marion and Robert, their souls seared by the night of suffering, begin to realize that all their suffering and all their trouble emanated from Uncle Abner's legacy. Beside the bed where lies their feeble, smiling child, the couple tenderly and solemnly plan the rebuilding of their happiness. Upon learning this, the old lawyer, sitting in his office, chuckles to himself, looking at Abner Crewe's portrait, "You had everything figured, Abner, excepting the child."—Moving Picture World synopsis
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