Walter Belasco

Impoverished Molly Hanlon is befriended by crooked gambler Lee Kirk, she marries him in a phony ceremony. While frequenting Kirk's gambling den, Molly meets Miles Rand, the dissolute son of Judge Rand, whose obvious attraction for her encourages Kirk to swindle him out of his money. Penniless, Miles accepts a loan from Molly and returns East to study law. On the day that Molly learns that her marriage is not legal, the gambling den burns down and Kirk is presumed dead. After escaping with Kirk's money, Molly goes East where she encounters Miles, now a district attorney. In spite of the objections of Judge Rand, Molly accepts Miles's proposal, but after Kirk arrives in town, she calls off the engagement. When Kirk enters her apartment through a window, Molly kills him in a panic and is arrested for murder. The still faithful Miles defends her in court, and after her acquittal, she confesses her past and reunites with her old love.

A senator fights for the passage of a war-preparedness bill, while foreign spies conspire to plan an invasion.

In his will, Mr. Baird leaves his son Arnold just one seven-passenger auto and a hundred dollars to keep it filled up and in good repair. When James Bennett hears of this, he insists that Baird do something to make his fortune before he can marry his daughter Ruth. Bennett begins by using the car to start a jitney-bus line. This is not terribly impressive to Bennett -- who owns a trolley company -- and he decides he would rather see Ruth married to his controller, William Mott-Smith.

Lord John, a detective novelist and the Marquis of Haslemere's brother, receives word that the stage adaption of one of his stories will not be performed because Roger Odell, a millionaire, has spoken against him. After tracking him down, Lord John joins his foe on an ocean steamer along with Grace Callender, an heiress, and Dr. Rameses, a hypnotist and Egyptian cultist. While the evil Dr. Rameses tries to steal a gold-filled mummy from Maida, Odell's adopted sister, Lord John confronts Odell, who reveals that his anger stems from a disservice that the Marquis once committed against Maida.

Just before a big bout, Jimmie, a New York prize fighter, gets a lucky medal from his friend Billy. Herman Marlex, a chronic teller of tall tales informs Jimmie that the medal is really a royal one, worn by the infant Prince of Magonia when he was kidnapped years before. Then, on fight night, Jimmie is knocked senseless. On his way home, Magonian emissaries see him wearing the medal, and so haul him back to the "homeland." Despite his insisting that he is merely a boxer, Jimmie is hailed as the returning prince.

Although he has been appointed to guard the fortune of young Thomas Creighton, the unscrupulous Lord John Needham decides to spend all of it after Tom runs away. Then, however, an announcement comes that Tom is returning and that he plans to claim his money. Fearful of punishment, both from Tom and the authorities, John kills his cousin and exact double, Joseph Norbury, and takes Joseph's place, thereby making it seem as if the dead man is really John.

Widow Martin struggles to rear her little daughter Nora amid the squalor of the slums yet imbue her with the refinement to which she had been accustomed in her girlhood.

While working his way through college, Paul Potter acquires a flock of wealthy friends who encourage him to give up his hometown fiancée, Sylvia Castle, for Muriel Evers, a flirtatious married woman. After Sylvia releases Paul, and Muriel's husband divorces her for infidelity, Paul and Muriel marry. Meanwhile, when Sylvia's father dies after being ruined in the stock market, she goes from one job to another in the city until she tries acting in a stock company. There she befriends Henry Leamington, an alcoholic leading man, who, as he tutors her, falls in love and stops drinking because of her. When Paul discovers Muriel's unfaithfulness, he renews his acquaintance with Sylvia, who still loves him.

In pre-Civil War days, a woman dies in childbirth. Her sister, believing the child to be illegitimate, leaves the baby in the care of one of her sister's slaves.

Bill Evers, a gambling house keeper, is in reality the "Desert Scourge," an outlaw.

Widower Calvert Paige leaves his baby daughter Johnnie in New York and goes West where he becomes wealthy as a mine owner and newspaperman. Lil Magill, who came to work on his newspaper, becomes infatuated with Paige, as he is with her, and they become lovers. After several years Lil has become a successful author but Paige has tired of her. Their estrangement grows when Lil takes the side of striking miners against him.

First movie in the Lord John's Journal series. Detective novel author and war hero Lord John solves a mystery.