Fort St. David, Cuddalore, southern India, 1748. While colonial empires battle to seize an enormous territory, rich in spices and precious metals beyond the wildest dreams, and try to gain the favor of the local kings, Robert Clive (1725-1774), a frustrated but talented clerk who works for the East Indian Company and struggles to earn his fortune, makes a bold decision that will change his life forever.
Just out of jail and vowing to go straight, former jewel thief Boston Blackie, undertakes the reformation of a pretty blonde who has stolen a necklace from a cabaret dancer. He learns that the jewel belongs to the mother of the blonde girl, and the blonde's philandering father gave it as a gift to the cabaret girl. Now, Blackie must find a way to return the necklace to the owner's safe without arousing the suspicions of the girl's family.
Small-town girl Mary Barry wins a beauty contest and goes to New York to meet D. V. Cortelyou, the magazine's publisher. Greatly taken by young girl, Cortelyou arranges for her to live with Dolly Griffith, a woman of questionable reputation who often aids him in his wicked schemes of blackmail and seduction. During a party seemingly in Mary's honor, Cortelyou obtains some apparently compromising evidence with which to blackmail Mrs. Young, the wife of a wealthy broker; Cortelyou then makes rough advances toward Mary, and one of his assistants, Jack McGuire, gives him a good beating.
Reporter Jimmy Munroe is writing an article on "the average woman". He meets Sally Whipple in the library and chooses her as a likely subject, following her around to gather material for his article, and eventually falls in love with her. Her father, Judge Whipple, doesn't like it; he has Jimmy arrested and allows him to see Sally only once a week. Meanwhile, disreputable businessman Van Alten is after Sally, and tries to pressure her into marrying him by threatening to release letters he says will embarrass her father.
A disloyal wife abandons her husband and child to become a cabaret dancer. Her lover goes to jail to protect her. In his absence she marries an artist whom she deserts when her lover is released from prison. Aware of the futility of awaiting her return, the second husband returns to his birthplace, Martinique, and to his childhood sweetheart.
The story of Jewish financier Stephen Field and his daughter Esther. Having survived a European massacre years before that claimed his wife and son, Stephen takes immense pleasure in philanthropic work at a community service center in the U.S. while Esther entertains returning soldiers in a canteen. At the canteen, Esther meets Robert Graham, who because of a war wound suffers from fainting spells, and he falls in love with her. William Morris, a brilliant Jewish surgeon also courts Esther; and the men vie for her affection. When Graham loses control of his car due to a fainting spell suffering grave injury, Morris is the only person who can save his life.