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This sordid drama was based on the Clyde Fitch stage play. George Rand (Robert W. Frazer) grows up in the small town of Middleberg, where his father has managed to hide his past. The father dies when Hannock, a blackmailer (Walter McGrail), threatens to expose his prison record. George moves his family to New York, where he becomes a mayoral candidate. When Hannock shows up on the scene, he hires him as campaign manager to keep him quiet. Rand's sister, Cicely, spends her evenings nightclubbing, and one midnight near the height of her brother's campaign, she weds Hannock. It turns out that the blackmailer is both a dope fiend and a drug peddler who is wanted by the police. Hannock shoots Cicely and George attacks him. In the ensuing fight, Hannock falls down an elevator shaft and dies. Cicely recovers from her wound, and the whole family moves back to the blessed quietude of Middleberg.