The story begins with Lily working as more than a waitress at her father's speakeasy. Soon after the film begins her father dies, leaving Lily on her own. Lily receives some sound advice from a shoemaker, Mr. Cragg. Who tells Lily she can get anything she wants because of her power over men and she should use that power to exploit them and gain the riches she wants. Lily and a servant from her father's speakeasy name Chico hop a train to New York where Lily begins working her way up the corporate ladder at a bank. Throughout the film Lily seduces men using her good looks and charm to gain access to those higher up in the bank, all the while not caring about the men she used to get there. In one instance, Lily uses Mr. Stevens to get to the Vice President, Mr. Carter, once she succeeds she tosses Mr. Stevens away without giving him a second glance. After Mr. Carter makes Lily his kept woman, Stevens comes back and begs Lily to marry him, when she refuses he breaks into her bedroom and seeing Mr. Carter promptly kills him, and then kills himself out of despair. Seeing that both men are dead, Lily calmly calls the police but seems to not have an intense reaction towards the dead men in her house.
The film continues on with Lily uses her womanly ways to garner the attention of men and obtain what she wants. In the end Lily has finally gained her riches and marries Courtland Trenholm the new president of the bank. Even though Lily has finally settled down and gotten married, she is still living for herself only and still doesn't truly care for her husband. This is evident when Courtland is being indicted by the Bank and has to gather one million dollars for his bond to get out of jail. He asks Lily for her money, jewels and bank bonds but, Lily refuses because she feels she worked her entire life for this wealth and refuses to give it up for a man. Lily gathers her things and leaves Courtland, only to shortly realize after that it's not the wealth she wants but the love and relationship with her husband Courtland. She rushes back to him to find him on the floor of his office apparently after a suicide attempt. Seeing this, Lily runs to be by his side, tells him she loves him and will do anything for him even give him all the money she has. This event highlights how Lily progressively changed throughout the movie.
Overall I really enjoyed the film and liked that the ending was a happy one for Lily. This movie falls into the fallen woman category because for most of the duration of the film Lily is unhappy and is continually searching for what she truly wants out of life. It isn't until the end of the film that Lily is redeemed by realizing her love isn't for money and wealth but for her husband, the man who loved her despite her past.
It's interesting that you see her as unhappy throughout the film, Stephanie. That mask of indifference that she wears in most of the scenes keeps us guessing about what she's thinking, until she meets Trenholm.
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