Maud (Gertrude Welcker) is a "kept woman" attached to Cheston (Bruno Ziener), a wealthy Lord. Maud's brother Brillburn (Conrad Veidt) enters one afternoon to extort Maud into persuading Lord Cheston to purchase a handsome and expensive necklace, which then Brillburn plans to steal. On Maud's urging, Lord Cheston does go forward and buys a necklace of valuable pearls, which he flaunts rather thoughtlessly in a nightclub that evening; later, he locks them in a cabinet. Brillburn isn't the only one with a plan to rob the jewels; Prince (Carl von Balla), a luckless, bankrupt gambler, breaks into Lord Cheston's mansion with a notion to steal the jewels, but is soon confronted by its owner. Prince overpowers Lord Cheston and hangs him in a makeshift noose in order to make it look like a suicide, then makes off with the jewels. Arriving on the scene a bit late, Brillburn discovers Cheston and takes him down from his improvised scaffold, but is apprehended by the police while attempting to flee from the mansion. Revived, Lord Cheston contacts Detective Ward (Otto Gebühr) who had been present at the club where the jewels were shown. At first, things look badly for Brillburn, whose lost dagger turns up at the crime scene. But in end, some stray tobacco leavings left behind by Prince and discovered by Detective Ward cinch the case.
by David Lewis
synopsis
