Though she loves one man, an ambitious Palm Beach girl marries another, whom she thinks is rich. He turns out to be a fraud who thought she was an heiress. She returns to a successful hat shop she maintains catering to socialites. Her true love turns out to be in fact, a rich man who let her think he was not to test her.

Elaine Kent weds Kenneth Billings, a young man who has a taste for wild living. She attempts to reform him and his exasperated father disinherits him. Now that he is without money, Kenneth starts a dye business and he proceeds to throw himself into it with the same amount of effort he once spent on the high life. As a result, he overworks until he is on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

In Borrowed Plumes is a silent comedy