Better by far that ten Guilty men escape than that one Innocent man die for another's crime-Upon this is built the most thrilling melodrama of the season.
Nell, the boss's daughter, uses Sherlock Holmes' detective work, to choose between the two suitors at her dad's broker's office.
A countess boasts that she can easily pull off a jewelery robbery. A professional jewel thief beats her to the punch, but then finds that his newfound loot has been stolen by a pretty young woman.
Lillian is an unfortunate woman. After leaving her baby at the door of a hospital she meets David, the author of her misfortune. It is a case of starvation or the "easiest way." She chooses the "easiest way." After eighteen years she again shows up, a social outcast and a tool for David's black profession.
27 well-to-do people have all vanished under similar circumstances. J.G. Reeder, an elderly gentleman who fancies himself a detective, decides to investigate the matter.
The Severed Hand, a society of Italian criminals and blackmailers, swear to kill Danny Dawson, who has turned traitor.
A doctor poisons his dying friend and is framed by his valet for poisoning his wife's first husband.
After being captured by T-Man Jack Blaisdell and sentenced to 20 years of hard labor on a counterfeiting rap, Tiger McGuire is sprung from jail by his old gang. Vowing to get even with Jack, Tiger kidnaps the young man's fiancée, Helen (Holmes), bringing the girl to his hideout, a fancy yacht owned by Lucy Carlisle.
In a saloon in a Mexican border town, a group of cowboys, including a Mexican named Pedro, play poker. One man is discovered cheating, and is shot dead by Pedro, who is wounded as he attempts to escape. Pedro is followed home by the local sheriff, who proves the next victim of Pedro's quick temper and pistol. Pedro's wife, Juanita, is thrown into jail, but he manages to break her out. They head for the border, unaware that a posse is waiting for them.
Harry objects to May going to college and breaking into their courtship; furthermore, he declares that it makes girls mannish and strong-minded. When May reasserts her determination to go to college notwithstanding his objections, they quarrel and he departs in a huff. May confides in her chum, Anne, with whom she is going to college, and Anne advises her to return Harry's engagement ring and locket and put an end to his interference. May sends back the ring but retains the locket, telling him that she lost it. May and Anne are at college. May wants to send an invitation to Harry to attend graduation, but does not want it to appear that she is really anxious to have him come. Her chum suggests that May send an announcement without signing any name. This plan is agreed upon...
An entomologist and his wife head out into the countryside for his studies and happen upon a group of free-spirited young dancers.
Prospector Dave Foster and his daughter Beulah live on a worthless claim until Foster befriends an Indian named Chegup. Chegup, in gratitude, helps Foster discover a valuable gold mine, changing their fortunes.
Quiet and fairminded Jack Bliss traces his missing father to Hell's Hole, where he meets Helen Turner and Jack Hall, the leader of an outlaw gang rendezvousing at Hell's Hole. Hall kills Helen's father but fails in his attempts to get rid of Bliss and Helen, and Bliss, singlehanded, takes on the gang while the neighboring ranchers, settlers, and herders unite to clean out the outlaws.
Young Swedish-American Katrin "Katie" Holstrom leaves her family farm in Minnesota, headed for nursing school. After her tuition money runs out, she is forced to take a job as a maid in the home of Congressman Glenn Morley. Holstrom endears herself to the genteel Morley, and begins to show a surprising aptitude for politics herself. She launches a campaign for Congress, and, as right-wing reactionaries plot against her, a romance develops.
A thousand dollar prize is offered to the winner of a dog race, and Jan Ducet would have used the money to doctor up his little child's bad leg if he had won. But he lost; and the winner, Otto Franke, runs away with Jan's wife. A priest takes care of the little girl while Jan gives chase and finds the regretful woman in the snow. A fight follows and Jan hurls Otto from a high cliff and returns home with his wife.
Getting his laundry from the Chinaman, "Honest Jim" spruces himself up in preparation to make a call on "Bess," with whom he is in love. Calling at Circle Ranch, her home, he finds Jack Rance making overtures to her father for "Bess' " hand. She greets Jim pleasantly, but she dislikes Jack; there is something about him which is distasteful to her and when her father intercedes for him she leaves the porch and hurries into the house. She does not have to wait very long to see "Jim" and "Jack" in their true colors and make a choice between the two. The clergyman of the ranch settlement and the .surrounding country comes to the post office where a crowd of cowboys are gathered to receive their mail.
Jimmie Dexter is on his way to college when his mother discovers that her stocks have stopped paying dividends. Jean Hilton, who has always loved Jimmie, offers to secretly stake him using her own inheritance. So Jimmie goes off to college, none the wiser, and gets tangled up with vampy cabaret singer Diana Parish.
Buddy Walters is a cowboy falsely accused of a crime actually committed by nasty Al Richmond.
Lt. Tom Brennan is cashiered from the 7th Cavalry on two charges, both unjust: that of deserting his men in the face of a cruel Indian attack, and of entertaining a married woman in his quarters after hours. Tom wanders into the desert and is picked up half-dead by Yuba Bill, a prospector with whom he goes into partnership. The Indians go on the warpath, and Tom rides to the fort and warns the colonel. Tom's innocence is established by the confession of an enlisted man, and Tom is reinstated to the service with full honors, renewing his engagement with Margaret Cranston.
A cuckolded husband finds poems written to his wife by her lover, who then tries to explain they were written to a goddess who shares the same name. The husband takes this as an insult to his wife.