Twenty-One plot
The McCullough couple decide to separate when their son Julian is seven years old. His mother raises him according to her own ideas and fourteen years pass. Quite by chance, he meets Lynnie Willis, a poor girl, in a girls' home. Julian takes her to a dance, where he meets Peter Straski, her fiancé and husband-to-be. Straski blows a hole in the gas tank of Julian's car, and they are forced to stay in a hotel all night. A scandal follows. The Willis family goes to the eldest McCullough and he agrees to a settlement which they accept. However, Julian says he will marry Lynnie and leaves the house.