Playthings of Desire is a surviving 1924 American silent melodrama film produced and directed by Burton L. King and starring Estelle Taylor. Parts of or all of the film is preserved at Library of Congress.
As described in a film magazine, Bianca (Petrova) models in clay and makes laces for a living. She accepts an opportunity to go to Paris and receive an art education, promising to send for her sister Rosa (Brent) and mother. A secret service agent betrays Rosa, and Bianca hurries home. Upon the death of Rosa she swears vengeance. She promises to marry Lavinne (Standing), the secret service agent, if he will disclose Rosa's betrayer, and is horrified when Lavinne shows her the picture of Etienne (Hamilton), the man she loves. Etienne comes to her room and she plunges a dagger into his breast. Lavinne forces her to accompany him to a hotel room where he scornfully tells her that he won her by trickery, and of having used Etienne's assumed name to lure Rosa away from home. Lavinne's valet (Korlin) informs the police that Lavinne is a traitor to his country and he is arrested. Bianca returns to her studio where she finds Etienne recovering from his wound, and they face a future of happiness.
Billy Kershaw, the son of a manufacturer in a small western town, comes to New York on business. He becomes engaged to wealthy Peggy Rice, a member of the modern jazz set, who prefers to "play the field" with other men. Sometime before, Billy had sent Jim Gorman to jail for theft, causing Gorman's girl, Minette Christie, to leave town. At a fashion show, Peggy persuades Billy to buy her an ermine wrap, trimmed with rhinestones, which is modeled by a girl who turns out to be Minette. Billy realizes that Peggy is no more than a gold digger and breaks the engagement. Gorman shows up and attempts to kill Minette, for he believes she turned him in. Billy, however, defeats Gorman in a fight, and at the very last minute saves Minette from being gassed to death in her apartment. Billy comes to realize that Minette is the girl for him.