The Pretenders plot
"If the Man You Loved Was a Thief OR YOU THOUGHT HIM ONE-WHAT WOULD YOU DO?"
When Silas Pettingill strikes oil and becomes immensely wealthy, his wife Maria and their daughter Helen demand that they move from their Midwestern home to a Fifth Avenue mansion in New York City. Even then, they are dissatisfied, despite having such fashionable friends. Helen laments her fate because she knows no lords or earls. Tired of their complaints, Silas goes out and befriends the cab driver Hubert Stanwood. At home, Silas introduces Stanwood as Earl Erfitt.