A lower class woman, Holly Parker (Turner), marries into the rich Anderson family. Her husband's mother (Constance Bennett) looks down on her and keeps a watchful eye on her activities. Due to her husband's frequent and long trips abroad, Holly forms a relationship with a well-known playboy (Ricardo Montalbán). When her lover accidentally dies, and only her mother-in-law knows she is innocent, the latter blackmails her into disappearing into the night during a planned boat trip, leaving her husband (John Forsythe) and young son (Teddy Quinn) thinking she has died. She then slowly sinks into depravity all over the world, only to be brought back to America under false assumptions by a "friend" (Burgess Meredith) who plans on blackmailing her family. When she realizes that the man intends to