Rudolph Valentino stars as Charles Grandet, pampered son of a Paris millionaire (
Eric Mayne). When his big-city magnate father suffers severe financial losses, he sends his son to the countryside to live with the brother (
Ralph Lewis) from whom he has been estranged for years. Charles is immediately attracted to his cousin Eugenie (
Alice Terry) but Pere Grandet is determined to foil their romance. Knowing his nephew is penniless, Grandet dispatches the youth to Martinique so that he can arrange a more financially lucrative marriage for his daughter. While away, Charles proves himself to be industrious and ambitious, and fate brings him back to the Grandet house years later, just as Eugenie prepares to wed another.