Willie Hale, Ronald Colman returns home from East Africa with little money left, after selling his house and belongings, and buys a dog with most of what he has. His father, Lord Leland Hale, Frederick Kerr a very wealthy man, is tired of Willie’s string of failed ventures but still slips him £100 to spend while keeping a wary eye on his son’s next move.
Back in England, Willie crosses paths with his former flame, Mary Crayle, Myrna Loy, a famed theatre star, and meets the family friend and heiress Dorothy Hope, Loretta Young. He invites Dorothy and his sister Susan Hale, Florence Britton, to join him for a day at the Derby. It’s there that Willie rides a 50-to-1 longshot and wins a substantial amount of money, a turn of luck that unsettles the social balance around him. Dorothy, impressed by his newfound charm and the prospect of a brighter future, ends her engagement with Grand Duke Paul, Paul Cavanagh, because Willie’s easygoing, reckless appeal feels more alive to her.
Willie isn’t eager to rush into romance, but Dorothy’s father, Mr. Hope, David Torrence, makes his disapproval clear and threatens to disinherit her if she marries Willie. Seizing an opportunity, Willie proposes, and Dorothy accepts on one condition: he must never see Mary again. The burden of keeping Mary in the dark weighs on him, and he cannot bring himself to tell her in writing or by a call. He waits outside the theater, hoping for a chance to speak to Mary in person, while Mr. Hope secretly drafts a plan to keep tabs on Willie by hiring a detective agency to follow him.
Dorothy orchestrates a tense telephone meeting—Mary is rung and Willie answers—so Dorothy can see whether Willie’s loyalties still lie with her or with Mary. Dorothy’s heart breaks when she realizes Willie’s life has not been entirely about her fortune or status. Yet she refuses to let him walk away quietly and chooses to test his intentions by offering him a substantial amount of money—£5,000—hoping he would take it as a sign he’s chasing inheritance. Willie accepts the money briefly but does not plan to keep it; instead, when he learns that Paul is destitute, he quietly sends the money to Paul in Dorothy’s name, a gesture that both surprises Paul and unsettles Dorothy’s father.
Paul’s gratitude arrives as a note to Dorothy, which delights her but unsettles Mr. Hope as he contemplates what this financial misdirection means for his own control over his daughter. The relationship between Willie and Dorothy undergoes a tentative reconciliation before Willie sails for New Zealand to start a sheep farm, seeking a fresh horizon away from the old pressures of English society.
Back home, Dorothy’s father contemplates a different future for Willie, offering to buy him a farm in England. Lord Leland Hale watches the developments with a measured smile, knowing that Mr. Hope’s money could be at stake if Willie ever stumbles again, a risk the old lord seems oddly pleased to witness. In the end, the two lovers find a path that blends affection with practicality, and the question of money—and who finally controls it—hangs over their plans as they move toward an uncertain but hopeful horizon.
