AllMovie

Wealthy Julia Long (Mabel Trunelle) is in love with a poor boy, but Julia's snobbish mother (Helen Strickland) forces her into a loveless marriage with millionaire George Bender (Robert Connesse). Out of boredom, Julia begins taking singing lessons, and before long she has fallen in love with her handsome voice teacher. She runs off to Paris with the teacher, leaving her daughter in Bender's care. Soon afterward, Julia's paramour deserts her, leaving her to fend for herself. Luckily, she makes all the right contacts, and before long she is the reigning opera diva of Paris. Eighteen years later, Julia returns to America, hoping for a reconciliation with her now-grown daughter Cora. Our heroine discovers that her social-climbing mother is still up to her old tricks, trying to marry off Cora to a mercenary European nobleman. It so happens, however, that Julia has herself had an "experience" with Cora's smarmy fiance, and she uses this leverage to break up the engagement, thereby ensuring her daughter the happiness that she herself has never truly enjoyed.