Vallery Grove is in love with Don Warren but her mother opposes the match because he is poor and has no social standing. Don decides to terminate his engagement to Vallery after attending a party where he meets a spoiled rich girl who is interested in him.
Mr. Williams, a stern father and man of wealth, disinherits his son Hugh, for marrying Rose, a seamstress. Twenty years later, although Sose is practically supporting her sick husband, their little store is taken from them and they are obliged to move, with Martha, their daughter, to the tenement district.
The leader of "The Sons of the Brazen Joss," one of the Tongs, or Chinese social organizations, is murdered by Moy Wong, cunning leader of The Four Grains of Rice," a Tong of higher class and bitter enemies of the "Sons." Sworn to vengeance, the "Sons" await an opportunity to get even.
German made drama was one of several the notorious Mary Nolan, under her given name Imogene Robertson, made during her European exile brought on by innumerable scandals in America.
Living in adjoining homes at Oakdale, Hal Oilman and Alice Blanchard are childhood friends and playmates. Some years later. Hal goes to college, and while there makes a bitter enemy of Bert Peyson by exposing him as a card cheat and a thief.
John Morrison, Wall Street financier, is in the habit of bringing home to his wife daily a bunch of beautiful roses. Delevan, a recognized Money King, meets Helen, the financier's daughter, upon whom he seems to immediately exert a hypnotic influence. She becomes infatuated with him.
"The Dawn of Freedom" is a stinging satire on the death of those ideals that prompted the founders of the United States.
To help his dying father, assistant bank cashier Arthur Mansfield enters a fake sum in the bank's account book, but before carrying out the pilferage, he confesses to cashier Slayton, his superior. Slayton, who needs money to pay for his unsuccessful speculations, goes at night to take the money that Mansfield planned to embezzle, so that Mansfield will take the blame.
The Twelfth Regiment is to leave for the front in the morning at seven, and Captain Steadwell, who has been missing for three days, has not yet appeared. Unless he is found and returned to the head of his company by seven the next morning, disgrace will fall on him and his fiancée, Ellen Ferguson. Ellen is also loved by the new assistant secretary of war, Richard Ralston, who does not know of her engagement, Worried by Steadwell's continued absence, Ellen appeals to Dick to find him. Dick sets out to locate him, and the trail leads to Gladys, an actress whose photo was on Steadwell's table.
Lieutenant Commander Colton, U.S.N., is in love with Caroline Austen, daughter of a prominent political power in Washington. Colton has a rival in James Archer, a journalist of prominence, unscrupulous and secretly in league with the Ruanian Ambassador, who is endeavoring to obtain for his country inside information as to the United States naval resources.
Lillie's parents are caretakers of the property adjoining Mr. Montgomery's estate. He is a wealthy bachelor. Lillie's pleasures consist in shooting, boating and gathering flowers, while roaming through Mr. Montgomery's woods and gardens. Cobbs, the grouchy gardener, has orders to keep all trespassers off the grounds and in vain to keep the troublesome Lillie away. Jack, the owner's nephew, arrives on a visit, and starts out to frighten away the trespasser, but instead falls in love with Lillie and she introduces him to her parents. A pleasing romance follows and the young people get a bead of fun out of fooling the old gardener and Mr. Montgomery, but Jack always reports that the little trespasser cannot be found.
Robert Brent and Dick Morgan, the former wealthy, the latter poor, are chums at one of the big colleges until they both fall in love with Viola Scott, a college girl.
Dr. Williams is so deeply immersed in his work he unconsciously neglects his wife. Newell Russell, a young society idler, becomes acquainted with them and Bobby, the doctor's son, takes a great fancy to him. Harmon, a former suitor of Mrs. Williams, sees an opportunity to make trouble and sends an anonymous note to the Doctor warning him to "watch his wife." This, followed by the discovery of an apparently compromising snapshot Bobby had taken, sends the Doctor in a rage. He demands an explanation from Newell at the point of an automatic, but Mrs. Williams saves the situation by proving the note was written by Harmon.
A romance of the rail, this two-part "thriller" uses wireless telegraphy as the means of averting a disaster to an express train.
The old sheriff dies. In jest, the mountaineers nominate Kaintucky Bill, the worst moonshiner in the state, for the office. Considering it a huge joke, Kaintucky Bill takes the oath of office.
Saved from a terrible shipwreck by Stephan Royston, son of a farmer. Nana, orphaned by the catastrophe, is adopted by the family and the two sons, Stephan and Godfrey, fall in love with her. Stephan's artistic tendency for painting, etc., is classed as foolishness by his stern father, while Godfrey, realizing that the girl favors his brother, determines to get rid of him.
Shortly after the engagement of John Brown and Hope Avery is announced, he receives an offer of a fine position in South America. She demurs at his going, but he overcomes her objections and after a tender farewell, leaves her with the promise to return within a year and make her his wife. Philip Lane is injured in an auto accident near the Avery home, and Hope discovers him. She has him taken to her home and during his convalescence, he falls deeply in love with her.
Betsy Thorne (Bennett) travels to investigate a missing man where she overhears a conversation between the sheriff and an imported detective that reporters are barred from the house and grounds where the mystery has taken place. She comes across a maid sent to the house from Richmond, and so frightens her that she gains a chance to act in her place. During the first night at the house she is terrified when she sees a ghostly figure come from the grand organ. The house is roused by her screams as she flees the room, and she is forbidden from going back there by the sister of the missing man. During the following night she is locked in her room during a thunderstorm, and while escaping through a window sees the ghostly figure again in the family graveyard. She makes an investigation which starts from a particular chord played at the grand organ. They find that certain keys cause a secret door in the organ to open, revealing a secret passage to a family tomb.
When Edith Graham returns from school to live with her father, Lieutenant Graham, at a Northwest Mounted Police post in Hudson's Bay, she finds herself courted by two suitors, Corporal John Emerson and Reginald Annesley, the latter of whom is a wealthy purchasing agent for the post. Annesley however is also involved with the half-breed Marie. When Marie tells him she is carrying his child Annesley kills her and attempts to frame Emerson. However, Edith is suspicious and sets out to find the truth.
A gang of crooks are employed to get possession of valuable papers of international importance, held by the French Ambassador, Vicomte de Jarlais. They are also instructed to get the Ambassador out of the way and make it appear that he has committed suicide. His mysterious disappearance arouses the United States Secret Service officers