A young woman doesn't want to get married, but simply live together with the man she loves. This leads to problems when the man dies and she's left with a child.
Nancy Bradshaw (Katherine MacDonald) is a popular stage star who quits her career to marry millionaire clubman Dick Cunningham (Charles Richman). But after a few years of marriage, he starts seeing other women. Figuring that her public was more faithful to her than her husband, Nancy returns to the stage.
After the Show was adapted from Rita Weiman's story "The Stage Door." Lila Lee plays Eileen, a starry-eyed young girl employed as a chorus dancer in New York. Eileen can never be certain if the men in her life are sincere, or if they perceive her as mere temporary plaything. Among the "stage door johnnies," "tired businessmen" and "sugar daddies" surrounding Eileen are Jack Holt and Carlton S. King.
Babs Van Buren saves her lover from the electric chair and at the same time extricates her older sister, Connie from a trying situation.
Sin
After divorcing her husband Kent, actress Anne Wetherall returns to the stage. Upon receiving a plea for help from childhood chum Nell Jerrold begging Anne to save Nell's daughter Betty from marrying Kent, the ex-Mrs. Wetherall decides to journey to the Jerrold's home in the town of Wheaton to investigate.
Wealthy orphan Philippa L'Estrange loves handsome Norman Arleigh and is confident of marrying him until he discloses that he has only brotherly affection for her. Determined to have revenge, Philippa introduces Arleigh to Madeline Dornham and reveals on their wedding day that Madeline, his bride, is the daughter of the man who killed his mother. In the end it is learned that Madeline is Mrs. Dornham's daughter from a previous marriage, not the daughter of a criminal.
Impulsive flapper Elizabeth Winthrop, rebels against her parents and moves to New York after breaking with her fiance, Clayton Webster. Hugo Von Strohm, a wealthy playboy, procures Elizabeth a job as a chorus dancer and secretly pays her salary. After he tries to seduce her, Elizabeth sees through his kindnesses and returns to her parents and Clayton.
Alan Trent (Ronald Colman), his cousin Gerald Shannon (Wyndham Standing) and neighbor Kitty Vane (Vilma Bánky) have grown up together, as close playmates When World War I starts, both Alan and Gerald enlist in the British Army as officiers, and Kitty sees them off to war. Many months later, Alan and Gerald come back to Kitty, on a short furlow. Alan and Kitty reveal their love for each other. Gerald (who's in love with Kitty, too) congratulates his friends. But before Kitty and Alan can arrange to be married the next day, the furlow is cut short and both men head back to the front lines. Weeks later, Gerald will not give Alan leave to marry Kitty. Still arguing, both men volunteer for a reconiscience raid into enemy lines, where a grenade goes off near Alan and appears to kill him. Gerald and Kitty mourn Alan's death. After the war ends, Gerald and Kitty become engaged to be married.
Jan Bokak is a self-educated steelworker who finds himself in the middle of a romantic triangle. Two different girls -- wealthy socialite Claire Pitt and blue-collar worker Mary Berwick -- simultaneously fall for Bokak. It later develops that Claire and Mary are actually sisters, the first of a series of surprising plot twists leading to Bokak being accused of a murder he didn't commit.
Pierre, the maitre d' at the swanky Ritz Hotel in Paris, discovers that he has a son from his former marriage, which was broken up by his wealthy wife's upper-class relatives. His son, now a young man and unaware that Pierre is is father, is in danger of becoming the victim of blackmailer Mae Morin. Pierre sets out to save him from the notorious Mae.
A stage-actress mother and her daughter in a battle-of-wills in a "don't do this, daughter" and "don't do that, daughter" story of youthful folly and over-zealous parental devotion.
Captain Timothy 'Two Gun' Nolan is appointed head of the New York detective force, and as his first act, rounds up every criminal in town. Gang boss 'Dapper' Frank Trent stands bail for all of them as independent minor gang-leader. Setting out to get Trent, Nolan moves in on his hideout, assisted by his friend 'Shakespeare.' Trent kills Shakespeare, but makes Nolan believe it is his shot that has done so. Nolan resigns his commission and becomes a drunk. Found unconscious by Trent, he is offered as the pièce de résistance at a gangland banquet which 'The Magpie' attends. A lost film.
The wife of sculptor Roger Heath is killed by a maniac because of Roger's madly jealous admirer Olivia Larkin. To care for his home and son Peter, Roger hires Irish immigrant Nora O'Hallahan as a nursemaid whom he realizes is possessed by the soul of his departed wife.
Finding himself deeply in debt, William Newlands reluctantly marries Beatrice, the wealthy daughter of an old friend. When their honeymoon train is derailed, Beatrice loses sight of her husband but manages to save the life of mine owner Steven Crawford. Newlands is reported burned in the wreck and Beatrice returns with Crawford to his cabin, where she nurses him back to health. Meanwhile, Newlands has escaped death and, filled with remorse, decides to make a new man of himself. Disguising his appearance by the addition of a beard, he finds work at the Crawford mine, but determines to stay out of Beatrice's life. Eventually, Newlands becomes foreman, brings law and order to the discontented miners and discovers a rich vein of ore, thus averting Crawford's financial ruin. His job completed, Newlands is about to leave when Beatrice recognizes him and begs him to give their marriage another chance.
A socially ambitious woman who convinces her father to borrow money from a snobbish man.
Russell Carrington accepts the blame for a murder charge to protect Rita, the woman he loves, from being accused of killing her husband. He escapes the police, and in a fishing village he assumes the name of Carr and is about to marry Dorothy Wheeler, the town belle, when detectives hired by Rita break up the ceremony and arrest him. Refusing to defend himself, Carrington is sentenced to life imprisonment but is released a year later as the result of the statement of "Sly Sam," a burglar who saw Rita shoot her husband. Dorothy, who has been living with a wealthy aunt in New York, is about to marry wealthy Ross Gunther, but Carrington is released and visits her home on the night of her engagement party. He thrashes a newspaper reporter who threatens to expose her affair with him, and the lovers are happily reunited.
A tyrannical landowner terrorizes his wife and seduces the daughter of one of his employees.
Archie Sheldon, determining to go to New York City, is given a letter by his mother to Thatcher Thole, Gotham's most unscrupulous financier. She tells her son that Thole is an old friend of the family, and will undoubtedly give him a start in life.
An understudy to a haughty star thinks she can have whatever she wants, including the show's leading comedian. But Claude has fallen for Gaby, and when the star finds out she threatens to walk off the show unless Gaby is discharged.