New York millionaire Thomas Randolph becomes furious when he learns that his spoiled, wastrel son Stephen has been involved in yet another highly publicized scandal. This incident, coupled with Stephen's reckless financial handlings, prompts Thomas to cut off his support and force him to work for a living. Stephen rejects his father's decision that he work at his San Francisco shipping company, and instead falls in love with Angie, a San Francisco cabaret singer who promises to follow him wherever he goes. When Stephen threatens to soil the Randolph name and never return if his father cuts him off, Thomas decides to teach his son a lesson by having him shanghaied and taken to China. Four months later, Stephen runs into Angie in a Chinese drug den, known in Shanghai as "Slackjaw Palace," where Angie pretends to be high on dope, unable to recognize him. Stephen tries to strangle Angie in order to get her to stop her drug habit, and they soon resume their romance. One year later, Stephen and Angie, living in Hawaii, are visited by Captain Trevelyan, a mutual acquaintance who appears to have developed a fondness for Angie. In the hope that Angie will leave Stephen when she learns that her sweetheart has returned to his alcoholic ways, Trevelyan tells her that he has seen Stephen on a drinking jag. While Angie feigns drug addiction to test Stephen's resolve to love her, Stephen's aunt arrives with news that his father is ill, forcing him to choose between staying by Angie's side, and going to his father's sickbed. After some deliberation, Stephen decides to stay with Angie. When Thomas decides that Stephen has learned his lesson, he summons him back to New York with a promise that he will take him into his firm, but only on the condition that he and Angie remain apart. Later, Thomas informs his son that he has had Angie watched while he was away, and tells him that she has left Honolulu with Captain Trevelyan. At that moment, Trevelyan and Angie enter and Thomas explains that he was satisfied with Angie's conduct under Trevelyan's surveillence, so he brought her over to be with Stephen.