Peasant girl Vania is assaulted by a duke who murders her lover and sends her away to London.
The defense attorney who was unable to obtain the acquittal of an innocent young man concocts a complicated and diabolical scheme to get revenge on the prosecutor.
Mike Kildare, a swaggering youth from New York City's Bowery at the turn of the century, comes to the defense of Mamie Rose, a mender in a secondhand clothing shop, when his own gang of Irish-Americans insult her.
The Talbots, formerly one of the Eastern Shore's first families, have gone to seed: Pap is a drunk, soddenly decaying in his ruined ancestral home, and three of his sons (William, Carol, and Ezra) are lazy, shiftless young men. Mulligan, Pap's second son who supports the entire family by oyster fishing, falls in love with wealthy Anna Lee, but when he first kisses her, she calls him "white trash."
Mildred Harrison lives a quiet life and her two main loves are her rose bushes and her fiancé, Harrison. The story primarily revolves around Mildred's devotion to Harrison and her garden and the challenges their relationship faces.
Wealthy and charitable-minded manufacturer Mr. Merwin fearing his death, decides to donate a large sum of money to the church to atone for his past lack of charity.
George Cantor and Tom Johnson love the same girl; one wins the girl from the other and the loser leaves swearing revenge on his successful rival. A few years later, the two marry. George is a successful doctor; Tom is an unemployed laborer with a wife, a sick baby, and little food at home.
A prosperous small-town peddler accedes to his family's wish to move from their secure existence to the uncertainty of New York City. It proves fruitless and eventually his kin sees the error of their ways and return to their true home.
A baby is left on the Brinbecombes' yacht while they are sailing up the Hudson River, and they adopt him and name him Everett. They are neighbors of Governor Floyd Vandecarm whose twin children, Floyd Jr. and Fledra, were kidnapped in early infancy. Their abductor was Lon Cronk, a man sent to prison by Vandecar when the latter was a district attorney of the county. The twins grow up in Cronk's shack as "Flea" and "Flukey." Despite her rough surroundings Fledra/Flea grows into lovely young womanhood and she and her brother run away from Cronk's cruelty. They reach Tarrytown and peer into the lighted windows of the home of siblings Horace and Anne Shellington. Anne brings the two young vagrants into the house and ultimately adopts them. But Cronk, aided by Everett, wages a long, evil campaign to regain possession of the children.
Neurologist and hypnotist Dr. Andrew Smiley is the guardian of wealthy siblings Wilfred and Marcie Redmond. Smiley wants to marry Marcia, as he desperately needs money, but when he proposes to her, she rejects him. Smiley has a secret lover, Sarah Kayton, the head nurse of his sanatorium, and she has borne him a son, Paul Kayton, who is Smiley's secretary, unaware that his boss is the father. Smiley devises a plan to have Marcia adjudged insane and take her fortune. He almost succeeds but at the last-minute he fails.
Peyton Carothers and Margaret Grayton want to marry but are impoverished. Margaret makes a calculated bargain with the wealthy Robert Van Allen to marry him for a million dollars. He agrees feeling he can win her love. What he doesn't know is she continues to see Carothers. When Van Allen discovers the duplicity he shackles the pair together and forces them to live together in a remote location. It does not go well with the lovers ending up hating each other and Carothers turning violent. Ultimately Margaret sees the error of her ways and stays with Van Allen.
The Conscience of John David (1916) tells the story of a wealthy spender who promises marriage to a "Worldly Woman" and plans a big announcement party. Their engagement is interrupted by another admirer, the "Libertine," and John David's life is disrupted by scandal and societal pressure, ultimately leading him to seek a more meaningful existence and a deeper love beyond superficial pleasures.
A new theatrical star is born when Ivy Liversedge, daughter of Silas, an unsuccessful playwright, scores a big success in Paul Hesseltine's new play, "The Fatal Silence." Paul falls in love with Ivy. but her father exhibits an intense dislike for him at their very first meeting.
Edward Thursfield, chief engineer of the bridge building firm of Henry Killick and Company, is building the largest concrete bridge in the world. Employed in the New York office is a young man named Arnold Faringay. Arnold sees an opportunity of using money from the payroll for a big deal.
John Glayde is a stone-hearted man intent on wealth to elevate his family, losing his wife to another man in the process.
A young girl is reared on a desert island by natives and led to believe that she is a goddess. One day an outsider comes to the island, and persuades her to accompany him to preach about the kindness and love she has experienced. She agrees, but she's soon confronted by the problems and travails of the "outside" world.
Broken-down tramp Weatherby finds inspiration to change his life after seeing the play "Youth". The plot follows Weatherby as he is given money by a kind passerby, which he uses to buy a theater ticket and see the drama that becomes the catalyst for his transformation.
Daire Vincent elopes with the revivalist Davids. He soon abandons her and their child, moving to New York where he becomes successful. Daire, after many hardships, becomes a dance hall singer to support their child. Eventually Daire moves to New York where she and Davids later cross paths again.
To get over a breakup with his actress girlfriend, a playwright goes on holiday to a lakeside resort, where he meets a strangely mismatched couple, a man and his much younger wife. He and the wife begin an affair, during which she introduces him to some of the darker aspects of romance.
A usurer cancels a woman's debt in return for wresting a financial secret from a minister's wife.