Vera Blaine, a young woman in the deep South, is passionate and romantic. So, she's easy prey for José Dalmarez, a novelist visiting from Brazil. Vera refuses a proposal from Hugh, her upright guardian, thinking she will marry Dalmarez. She writes him love letters and inscribes a book to him with loving words. When she learns that his intentions do not include marriage, she spurns him, and he returns to Brazil. Several years pass, with his behavior unchanged: he courts a local beauty, Inez, to the ire of her brother. Work then takes Dalmarez back to the States, where he encounters a now-married Vera and sets out to blackmail her. Will he have his foul way?