James Wylie, a gambler, is captured by the police and given the option to pose as a bandit to forgo a prison sentence. Meanwhile, James tries to uncover the identity of the Poet.
When beautiful young Carrie Meeber (Jennifer Jones) travels from her small hometown to Chicago in the 1890s, she meets well-off traveling salesman Charles Drouet (Eddie Albert) on the train
Shiftless playboy Tom Collier lives to jump from party to party--until he meets photographer Christie Sage. Through Christie, Tom takes over the ownership of The Bantam, a liberal magazine which opposes everything his family represents