Amory Blaine is an young man from the Midwest who feels he's destined for greatness. He attends Princeton University, and on a trip back to Minneapolis, he encounters Isabelle Borgé, a young woman he'd met years before. When their relationship doesn't work out, he returns to Princeton, but is soon shipped overseas to fight in World War I (the Great War). After the war, he meets and falls in love with Rosalind Connage, but she wants to marry a rich man. Amory has no money, so how can he win his lovely debutante? Or can he win her at all? Can love survive the greed and the social climbing or will it be crushed and left to die on this side of paradise?