In the final days of World War I, pilot Jeff Masterson is blinded when his plane crashes off the coast of France. He blames industrialist John C. Tullock, who has recently come under fire for selling faulty munitions to the government. Unable to face his fiancee, Mary, Jeff fakes his death and swears vengeance against the millionaire. While on his quest for revenge, the blinded aviator meets the mysterious Mr. Smith, who volunteers to pay for a risky operation that could restore his vision. But Jeff is unaware that his benefactor has married Mary in his absence, and is secretly the powerful industrialist who caused his blindness.
Worldly Goods' star, James Kirkwood, began his career in D.W. Griffith pictures such as A Corner in Wheat (1909) and Home, Sweet Home (1914). Moving behind the camera, he became a favorite of Mary Pickford's, directing her in Cinderella (1914) and Fanchon the Cricket (1915). Despite this, he would continue acting well into the 1950s. His son, James Kirkwood, Jr., was the Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Chorus Line.