A young, beautiful prostitute named Sadie Thompson (Gloria Swanson) arrives on the South Pacific island of Pago Pago looking for honest work, and falls for Timothy O'Hara (Raoul Walsh), an American sailor who is unfazed by her unsavory past. However, Mr. Davidson (Lionel Barrymore), a missionary who arrived on the island at the same time, aims to "save" Sadie from her sinful life and petitions to have her separated from her beau and deported back to San Francisco.