Abandoned on the church steps at birth Jacques Revilly is a pariah in his small hamlet finally heading to Paris to fulfill his dream of being an artist. After three years he has become quite adept but due to his slovenly ways and appearance he has been nicknamed “The Beast” and is once again exiled among society. One night he discovers a young girl who has collapsed in the roadside snow, with the assistance of his one friend Varney they nurse her back to health and “The Beast” begins to mend his ways.
Princess Sylvia refuses to marry the Emperor Maximilian of Rhaetia because his proposal has been offered for diplomatic rather than romantic reasons. Learning that Maximilian is traveling to a hunting lodge in a small village, Sylvia follows him, disguised as an untitled English girl, and the emperor immediately falls in love with her.
Theda Bara's vamping is at its most evil here. She plays the Russian Princess Petrovitch, who loves only her pearls. Her husband, the Prince (E.F. Roseman), sells state secrets to a spy to pay her exorbitant bills, and her response is to report him to the secret police. Then she runs off to Monte Carlo with her lover, Count Zerstoff (Emil deVarney), but she poisons him after he racks up a load of gambling losses.
Successful, but financially struggling architect Robert Crewe is devoted to his wife Marion and daughter Emily. Unknown to him, his Uncle Abner harbors a spite for him because Robert's father stole Abner's fiancée, who died in childbirth after their marriage. Mad for revenge Abner hires a beauty to break up Robert's home, but she fails. When Abner dies, he leaves Robert his fortune hoping it will lead to Robert's downfall. He is almost proved correct but when Robert and Marion are threatened with Emily's death, they finally decide to change their lives and bring the family back together.