Vera Blaine, a young woman in the deep South, is passionate and romantic. So, she's easy prey for José Dalmarez.

A feisty, independent young woman, Damophilia Illington ("Phil" for short, hence the title), the daughter of a progressive university professor, is devastated by the sudden death of her father. The town's banker, an arrogant stuffed shirt, wants to marry Phil and has himself declared her guardian. Not wanting to marry him, she quickly leaves town and lands a job at a nearby university as an assistant to a professor of Greek literature (an area in which her father trained her) who is bitter and resentful after the breakup of his engagement to a woman who, it turned out, had been lying to him. "Phil", however, is determined to win him over.

Cardinal Mercier protects the altar of his church from desecration when German forces invade the Belgian city of Louvain during World War I. Although the soldiers commit widespread atrocities, the cardinal does his best to protect the townspeople.

On the promise of marriage, Sylvia Smith, a simple girl from Lone Meadows, follows her lover to the city only to discover that he already has a wife.

Adventuress Stefanie Paoli forsakes her lover, humble fisherman Gabriel Barrato, for the arms of a nobleman, the Marquis de Mohrivart.