Norine Lawton is a young woman living by her wits in New York City. When she becomes friendly with Count Bonzi, a swindler, he enlists her aid in his scheme to sell worthless Mercer oil company stock to wealthy Christopher Gibbons, a retired war hero.
After Ned Hamilton is rejected by his girlfriend, he travels to Japan where he hears an old legend about the Willow Tree Princess, who kills herself so that her lover will go off to battle. When he makes a purchase from Tomotada, an image maker, he meets his pretty daughter O-Riu, and they recreate the events of the legend.