As the Great War breaks out, Ann Vickers, a serious, independent and forthright woman, falls for an officer who jilts her before she can tell him she's pregnant. After an abortion, she throws herself into social work, stirring things up at a woman's prison and writing a best-seller about the experience. Back in Manhattan, she runs a halfway house for paroled women and meets an equally free-thinking jurist, Barney Dolphin, who's estranged from his wife (she doesn't believe in divorce) and under investigation for corruption. Ann and he begin an affair and have a child just as he's indicted. Scandal ruins her career. Can they flaunt convention and find happiness?