Ricardo Fuentes (Carlos Gardel) leaves Buenos Aires after loosing in horse races to go to Barcelona, where he plans to open a tango bar, a new concept of tango dance show and dance saloon. On the ship he meets Laura Montalván (Rosita Moreno) who happens to be a thief working with a thief pal. Ricardo watches them robbing a lady's bracelet aboard but decides not to report them because he has fallen in love with Laura. Once in Barcelona, he opens the tango bar but Laura's partner tells him he sold the bracelet and now needs to recover it to avoid both Laura and him going to jail.

Led by his lust and his unrepentant consciousness, Hamdy abandons his family and takes a french lady as his mistress. When his mistress cheats on him, Hamdy shoots her lover in retaliation. After spending his prison sentence, he returns to Egypt, haunted by his sense of guilt.