Youth meets Ambition and leaves Love, his mother, and his small-town roots for the big city. There, in his search for Experience, he meets Pleasure and hangs out at the Primrose Path with the likes of Temptation and Intoxication. Back home, Youth's mother dies, and Love tries unsuccessfully to reach him. When Youth's money runs out his newfound friends all leave him and he sinks into a life of drug addiction, aided by Habit.

An unscrupulous broker discovers his hated business rival has secured a valuable option in Brazil and determines to delay the latter in New York until it expires. He uses a cabaret dancer to use her wiles to keep him there.