Fifty-Fifty

Naomi, a girl of the studios in New York's artist quarter, is possessed of a superabundance of vitality and a desire for continuous frolic and adventure. One night, at a gay party, one of the men is deceived by Naomi's effervescent spirits into thinking than she is a much more unconventional girl than she herself has any idea of being. He is told by his companions that Naomi is not the sort of girl he thinks her to be, but insists that he can prove that she is, and even makes a wager to that effect. Naomi, really quite unsophisticated, is tricked by the man into accompanying him into a hotel of questionable repute, where the two, innocent of any wrongdoing, are captured in a police raid, and Naomi has an unpleasant experience in the night court. Friends come to her aid and she is released. Not long after this, Frederic Harmon, a broker, comes into the girl's life. The two fall in love and are married. The birth of a baby completes the transformation of the girl's character and she cares only for her home, her husband and her child. The husband, however, does not settle down to home life. He is still much inclined to the gayeties of the set in which he had become acquainted with Naomi, and when she refuses to take further part in the revels of the Bohemian crowd, he fares forth by himself. It is not long before he meets Helen Carew, a woman with a past and without a conscience, who fascinates him partly for her amusement and partly for mercenary reasons. Eventually Harmon's infatuation for the other woman becomes known to Naomi. She is heartbroken, particularly when Harmon goes so far as to ask her to divorce him in order that he may marry Helen. This she refuses to do. Helen, anxious to get the man entirely into her clutches, enters into a plot with a crooked detective whereby Naomi is to be caught in a compromising situation, thus giving her husband grounds for divorce from her. The detective picks up a convict just out of Sing Sing and by means of a decoy message Naomi is induced to go to a hotel room where the man from Sing Sing is waiting for her. Once the two are in the room together it is raided by newspaper reporters and a photographer, and a flashlight of Naomi in the arms of the convict is obtained. The husband brings suit for divorce, offering as evidence the stories of the witnesses at the raid and the flashlight photograph. He also asks custody of the child. Naomi startles the judge and spectators when she declares that she should be allowed to keep the child, because Harmon is not its father. The judge, however, suspects that Naomi is sacrificing her reputation in order to keep her baby, and calling the girl into his private office, he gets the truth from her. Meantime there has been an unexpected development in the affairs of Helen. The man from Sing Sing had been her lover before he went to prison, and she is unpleasantly surprised when the detective's use of him brings him again into her life. The ex-convict is in Helen's rooms, trying to renew their old association when Harmon comes to see her. Helen hastily hides the jailbird, but while she is talking to Harmon the convict comes out and tells Harmon of the woman's past and his connection with it. Horrified at the revelation of Helen's true character, Harmon goes out of her life at once and forever, but in the course of time succeeds in winning his way back into his home.