Anthony Patch's marriage to the beautiful but selfish Gloria is idyllic at first but the union slowly disintegrates as reality sets in and their goal becomes Adam Patch's fortune. Gloria's beauty fades, and Anthony's drinking takes its toll. Charting the corrosive attraction of wealth and its malign influence, 'The beautiful and damned' is also a vivid portrait of early twentieth-century New York and the sights and sounds of the city's burgeoning night life.