Holly Parker (Lana Turner) is married to high-powered diplomat Clay Anderson (John Forsythe), but finds that her attention wanders when he's away. She then decides to disappears to start a new life. But years later, having descended into a life of prostitution, she is arrested for murder and discovers the defense attorney is her long-lost son.
Completed the same year as the star's first face-lift, Madame X viciously spans two dozen years, inspiring one gossip columnist of the time to joke that Constance Bennett looked younger without makeup than Turner did with it.