In Renaissance Florence, a Florentine trader meets a shipwrecked stranger, who introduces himself as Tito Melema, a young Italianate-Greek scholar. Tito becomes acquainted with several other Florentines, including Nello the barber and a young girl named Tessa. He is also introduced to a blind scholar named Bardo de' Bardi, and his daughter Romola. As Tito becomes settled in Florence, assisting Bardo with classical studies, he falls in love with Romola.

• Inspiration Pictures
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
• Lillian Gish
• Dorothy Gish
• William Powell
• Ronald Colman
• Charles Lane
• Herbert Grimwood
• Bonaventura Ibáñez
• Frank Puglia