(as Zoya Karabanova)
Millionaire Gornostayev and ballet dancer in Ilona are always arguing about what is more important - youth and beauty or wealth. Ilona thought that youth and beauty are more important, but Gornostayew disagreed with her. He intended to prove Ilona that she in wrong. Gornostayew signed a contract with young worker Alexey. They moved abroad. Year later. Alexey changed into a real aristocrat and returned to Russia. Gornostayew introduced Alexey to Ilona and she falls in love with him.
Ivan Savonsky, popular society artist, meets Olga Kartoff, a young woman high in social circles, and while she is instantly attracted by him, he sees in her only the perfect model for his picture, "The Dagger Woman." Studying her, and by carefully playing on her emotions he gains her confidence, and afterward she consents to pose for him. The picture completed, she is grieved and then angered to discover that Ivan's interest rests solely in it, and how it will fare at the exhibition. She pleads with him in vain. The picture is pronounced a masterpiece, and Ivan is in his triumph as he returns to his studio. Here Olga has secreted herself. Humiliated by the reports circulated regarding herself and the artist, and unable longer to bear his disinterest she plunges a dagger to his heart and kills him.
