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This World War I drama was originally a novel by Mary Roberts Rinehart, and because of its complicated, overlapping plot lines, it didn't adapt very well to film. In the months before the United States gets involved in the war, Rudolph Klein (Frank Leigh), a German spy working in America, is hoping to get his brother, Herman (Stanton Heck), to blow up his former employer, Spencer Steel Works. Although Herman has been faithful to his employers, he has been compelled to resign because he won't help make shells that will be used against the Germans. There is unrest all around, and a bomb explodes at a fashionable ball attended by Clayton Spencer (Lawson Butt) and his wife, Natalie (Clarissa Selwynne), who own the Steelworks. The couple are having problems because she feels neglected by her husband, and because she doesn't want her boy, Graham (Rowland V. Lee), to go to war. Graham is loved by both Delight Haverford (Pauline Starke), and, coincidentally, by Herman's daughter, Anna (Ann Forrest). Rudolph inflames Herman against the Spencers by convincing him that Graham is having an affair with Anna. Graham finally agrees to blow up the factory and Anna finds out about the plot. She escapes from her father's house in an attempt to put a halt to it, but she is too late. She is caught in the ruins and dies in Graham's arms. Graham does finally enlist and heads overseas, asking Delight to wait for him. Meanwhile, the Spencers divorce, so that Natalie can marry Rodney Page (Bertram Grassby), the architect who loves her.