Odette Rider is fired by Thornton Lyne after rejecting his favors. Jack Tarling, a detective who has been working in China and just returned to London, visits his cousin Thorton Lyne at his store to discuss his cashier Milburgh's embezzlement. In his anger with Odette, Lyne decides to try to blame her for the embezzlement instead. Tarling immediately falls in love with Odette. Lyne is found dead in the park with one of Odette's nightgowns wrapped around his gunshot wound and it doesn't look good for Odette.