In 1914, spoiled Fanny Trellis (Bette Davis) is a renowned beauty with many suitors. She loves her brother Trippy (Richard Waring) and would do anything to help him. Fanny learns that Trippy has Embezzlement money from his employer Job Skeffington (Claude Rains). To save her brother from prosecution, Fanny pursues and marries the lovestruck Skeffington. Disgusted by the arrangement, in part because of his prejudice against Skeffington being Jewish, Trippy leaves home to fight in the Lafayette Escadrille in World War I.