Película muda ambientada en el mundo del circo que tanto le gustaba a Browning. Incluye la actuación de un ilusionista cuyo número principal consiste en separar la cabeza de su cuerpo. Pero, además, los artistas se ven involucrados en pasiones e intrigas diversas.
Lightnin' the dog and his master, Tom Harding are on to a group of smugglers who operate down at the harbor. Tom nearly bags them, but he's overwhelmed and they take flight. His girlfriend bluffs her way into the gang's hideout, but is discovered and held back. Tom is again overpowered by the crooks and thrown in a secret dungeon, but he fights his way out.
El príncipe Danilo, heredero al trono, se enamora de la bailarina Sally O'Hara. Pero su tío, el Rey Nikita I de Monteblanco, prohíbe el matrimonio por ser una plebeya. Desengañada, ella se casa con un rico y anciano Barón. Obra maestra del cine mudo, un ácido retrato de la aristocracia, basado en una opereta de Franz Lehar, que se convirtió en unos de los títulos más famosos del gran Erich von Stroheim.
During a carnival in Venice, Horace Pierpont, a wealthy American (Lewis Stone), falls in love with Fay Kennion (Virginia Valli). Their romance is derailed when she goes over to his apartment and finds the vampy Fifi (Nita Naldi) there. Fay goes down to Algiers, where she marries a former sweetheart, Dr. Alan Mortimer (Edward Earle).
Two cowboys drift into town. Both are broke, and one of them jokingly suggests they rob the local express office. A citizen overhears them, and when the office is robbed soon afterwards, the cowboys are blamed for it.
