Mrs. Errol, rehearsing for a play but keeping it a secret from Leon, forces him to take a taxi, as she needs the family car. The taxi driver tells Leon a tale of a love triangle that sets Leon's imagination on fire. He follows his wife and discovers her rehearsing a love scene with an actor, and he thinks it is real. He is leaving when he hears a pistol shot and rushes back, to discover his wife stuffing a dummy in a hamper, but he thinks it is a real body. To protect his wife, Leon steals the hamper, and is almost lynched by a crowd who also thinks the hamper contains a real body.
Based on the novel by Hervey Allen, this expansive drama follows the many adventures of the eponymous hero, Anthony Adverse. Abandoned at a convent by his heartless nobleman father, Don Luis, Anthony is later mentored by his kind grandfather, John Bonnyfeather, and falls for the beautiful Angela Giuseppe. When circumstances separate Anthony and Angela and he embarks on a long journey, he must find his way back to her, no matter what the cost.
The seemingly happy relationship between Tony and Jim is threatened when his manipulative, seductive former fiancee visits.
A recently divorced interior decorator falls in love with a married barrister.
A baby is left on the Brinbecombes' yacht while they are sailing up the Hudson River, and they adopt him and name him Everett. They are neighbors of Governor Floyd Vandecarm whose twin children, Floyd Jr. and Fledra, were kidnapped in early infancy. Their abductor was Lon Cronk, a man sent to prison by Vandecar when the latter was a district attorney of the county. The twins grow up in Cronk's shack as "Flea" and "Flukey." Despite her rough surroundings Fledra/Flea grows into lovely young womanhood and she and her brother run away from Cronk's cruelty. They reach Tarrytown and peer into the lighted windows of the home of siblings Horace and Anne Shellington. Anne brings the two young vagrants into the house and ultimately adopts them. But Cronk, aided by Everett, wages a long, evil campaign to regain possession of the children.