The film consists of a series of tightly interlinked vignettes, the most sustained of which details the story of a man and a woman who are passionately in love. Their attempts to consummate their passion are constantly thwarted, by their families, by the Church and bourgeois society in general.

Wirsoq, who belongs to the type of cosmopolitan financier, gets into his power a young French aristocrat, Arthur de Sorgepois, and insists that the boy's sister should marry him. The girl is in love with a young artist, Pierre Levannier, who secretly returns her affection, but does not declare himself at this critical moment because he is not rich enough to support a wife.

Pedro (played by a white actor in blackface), a son of a former slave, leaves Cuba (where he was being mistreated for being black) to seek his fortune in Paris. While working as a bellboy at a dance club, his dancing prowess is discovered and then he goes to become a famous dancer of the Charleston in the city. He falls in love with his dancing partner, who could not stand the thought of marrying him because of his skin color.