A Southern belle finds herself torn between two suitors.
In the early 1800's, sixteen-year-old coquette Gilberte Brigard, called "Frou Frou," returns from school in France to her Louisiana plantation. Craving excitement, Frou Frou feigns a toothache so that she can visit the dentist in New Orleans. Although her travelling chaperone, Madame Vallaire, tries to watch over Frou Frou, she sneaks away to attend a ball where she meets Madame Vallaire's wastral son Andre, with whom she is infatuated. Upon their return home, Frou Frou and her more stable older sister Louise attend Georges Sartoris, a family friend who is recovering from a knife wound received while prosecuting a white man accused of killing a young slave. Although Louise is in love with Georges, she encourages him to marry her sister when she learns that he is in love with Frou Frou. Five years later, as Georges and Frou Frou's son Georgie is celebrating his fourth birthday, Georges has become concerned that Frou Frou's youthful playfulness has not decreased during their marriage. Because he fears that their marriage will be destroyed because she is unable to run their household, he asks Louise to stay with them and take charge, telling her that Frou Frou is merely a "toy wife." While Louise runs the household, Frou Frou happily begins rehearsing an amateur play with Andre with whom she become reacquainted after a chance meeting. Soon, however, she begins to realize that Louise has supplanted her position within the household. When even little Georgie seems to prefer Louise to his mother, Frou Frou confronts Louise, who still loves Georges, but has only been trying to save Frou Frou's marriage. When Louise tells her sister why Georges wanted her to come into their home, Frou Frou decides to leave with Andre, who has asked her to elope with him. Six months later, after Madame Vallaire tells Frou Frou's father Victor that the pair has gone to New York, he dies of a heart attack. Because Frou Frou turns her inheritance over to Georgie, she and Andre are soon destitute due to his gambling debts. They then return to New Orleans after which Georges challenges Andre to a duel. Although Andre is known to be the better shot, he is killed by Georges. Frou Frou and her maid "Pick" soon are impoverished and she is weakened by pneumonia. One evening, after Frou Frou offers prayers in a small church, Louise finds her. Georges refuses to see her or allow their son to see her, until Louise makes him realize that Frou Frou only became his toy wife because that was what he really wanted. Georges finally goes to Frou Frou and brings her home where she dies after telling him that Louise loves him and will make him a good wife.
