After 5 years of marriage, Beth and Peter Marsh's life together is a series of rows and reconciliations. Beth is frivolous and extravagant; Peter is domineering and ambitious and has difficulty paying the bills. Daniel Rankin, who lives in the same apartment building, becomes attracted to Beth and arranges with the Marsh chauffeur to have her car break down, allowing him to offer assistance and gracefully introduce himself; Rankin later invites her to a dance. Resenting Rankin's attentions to his wife, Peter forbids her to go. However, Beth accompanies Rankin to spite her husband, and Rankin proposes that she divorce Peter and become his wife. After she returns home, Beth has a bitter fight with Peter, walks out of the apartment, and goes to see Rankin. He repeats his proposal, but, suspecting that the tearful Beth truly loves her husband, he reads her the story of King David and Bath-Sheba from the Bible. This account of the severe consequences of illicit love prompts her to return to Peter, with whom she is soon reconciled.