Helen Ferguson, pregnant, penniless and dumped by her boyfriend Steve Morley, takes the identity of the pregnant Patrice Harkness, when she and her husband are killed in a train crash. The rich Harkness in-laws, and their other son Bill, had never seen Patrice, so they accept her and her newborn son into their family. However Steve eventually finds her and starts to blackmail her.

Jeff Dawson (Gary Cooper) is a hapless oil speculator in South America whose misadventures reunite him with an old friend, Ward 'Paco' Conway (Anthony Quinn). Unfortunately for Jeff, Paco's wife is bad-news, man-eating Marina (Barbara Stanwyck), the lover Jeff ran away from years ago, undoubtedly knowing that despite his lust for her, she was just no good. And now Jeff loves another woman, Sal (Ruth Roman).

T•C• Jeffords是一个自大、冷酷的农场主，他的女儿Vency一直希望代替死去的母亲，获得父亲的爱与权力，直到一天TC带回另一个女人。Vency与父亲决裂，并最终靠自己的力量夺走了农场。