Wealthy Anne Wilmot vacationing along with her aunt Katherine at her fiancé Leon Morse's (Hull) Arizona mountain lodge discovers his plot to destroy a nearby hydroelectric engineering project in order to obtain the land for his railway. She thwarts the sabotage but find herself in a life and death struggle.
Besse Belwin works as a stenographer for district attorney John Mobley. It doesn't take long for Mobley to fall in love with his cute little employee and he proposes. Besse doesn't reveal that her father has a criminal past which he has since renounced.
Walter Sandry, holder of a mortgage on timber lands in the Pacific Northwest, arrives to claim his property. He comes into conflict with a rival company and with lumberjacks influenced by their foreman, Hampden, whom he later beats in a fight.
Jo Morey, who lives in the St. Lawrence River Valley, inherits her father's barren farm and devotes her entire energies to cultivating it and caring for her invalid sister. Henry Langley meets Jo and proposes marriage to her. She asks him to wait until she is free, but Langley refuses and marries Mary Malden. Eight years later Jo has paid off the mortgage to Captain Longville, and one night she finds a baby in her house; it is Langley's, and a note requests that its parentage be kept secret.
When wealthy Edith Carroll, naïve and flighty, is introduced to the social but roguish Hubert Ranston, she is infatuated despite being engaged to contractor Joe Brooks. Even after her marriage she keeps up the flirtation, but the foolhardiness of her actions becomes clear when Hubert is exposed as a jewel thief who has made off with many baubles including some of Edith’s.
A chauffeur named Frank gets caught between his wealthy employer, Mr. Rogers, and Rogers' wife, who loves Frank, and his own love interest, Florence, the wealthy ward Rogers is abusive towards. After Frank is framed by Rogers for theft and a blackmail scheme involving the divorce, Frank and Florence fall in love, while Mrs. Rogers is driven to the brink of suicide. Frank protects Florence from Rogers and ultimately, the lovers unite while the abusive couple suffers.
Half-breed Nor is loved by French Canadian Jacques but when they quarrel, she meets Englishman Cedric Ralston who has been jilted by his fiancée Margaret for his elder brother, Lord Ralston. Later, Nor and Cedric are married, but on the day of their wedding, Cedric hears of his brother's death, and he goes to England, taking Nor. Unhappy she realizes Cedric’s heart belongs to Margaret and Nor returns to her mountains and to Jacques.
Canadian Mountie Philip Curtis is telling Josephine McCloud, with whom he is in love, about a hermit who once saved his life and nursed him back to health. Josephine remains impassive until Philip tells her the hermit's name: Peter God. At the mention of his name, Josephine begs Philip to find Peter and take him a letter she had written to him. Puzzled but not wanting to deny anything to the woman he loves, he sets out to find Peter, but when he does he discovers that Josephine has a connection to Peter that Philip knew nothing about.
An American millionaire visiting London falls in love with a young aristocrat and elopes with her, pursued by a rival suitor.
Miss Taku Takagi is a girl who sacrifices her life that the Mikado's army may get plans of a Russian fort. Her husband had been detailed to get the plans; but drunk at the critical moment she takes his place. A sentry wounds her; but she manages not only to escape, but to delay the search long enough for her husband to get away with the papers.
A well to do young man imagined he was very much in love with a certain actress.
Hugh Payne owns and operates a mine in the West, supporting his brother Larry's luxurious life style. Hugh has nurtured Abby Hope, a young girl with whom he has fallen in love. When Larry comes to visit, he and Abby decide to get married, and to spare Abby's feelings, Hugh pretends that he is infatuated with another woman.
Convent raised Doris Elliott moves to New York to live with her brother Richard not knowing that he is part of a drug trafficking ring controlled by unscrupulous ward boss Michael O'Leary. At first Doris remains ignorant of the pervasiveness of crime and corruption in the Lower East Side until her friend, Mamie Bronson, whose brother, "Dopey Benny," has fallen victim to drugs, confesses that O'Leary has raped her. When O'Leary breaks into their home and attempts to rape her as well, he is shot when Richard unexpectedly arrives. Finding O'Leary dead and Richard unconscious, the police arrest Doris, and she is tried for murder. Defense lawyer Thomas McDonald, who has been working to expose the politician, is losing his case when Dopey Benny testifies that he killed O'Leary to avenge his sister's assault. Acquitted Doris is now free to marry Thomas.
Robert Worthing marries his sweetheart, Madeline Francis, but the wedding is ruined by his mother, who announces that because she and her parents are insane, he possesses tainted genes. Fearing that he will pass the disease on to his children, the bridegroom avoids his new wife and locks the door between their rooms. Deeply in love with Madeline, whom he is forced to love only as a sister, Robert considers suicide, but all ends well when the young man learns that he was adopted.
Bailey Dryden, a young millionaire, gathers his companions for one last trip on his yacht before becoming Benedict, the yacht is anchored near Mermaid Rock. There is a legend about the rock of a young mermaid who lives there and can take human form every hundred years if she wishes.
The rehabilitation of "Chicago Sal," a lady crook, is seemingly realized when probation officers send her to the country home of Steve MacLaren to work off money stolen from him by her partner. She falls in love with MacLaren and is accepted as a member of the household. Unable to resist the temptation, however, she leaves the farm with two former colleagues when they come to visit her. MacLaren follows her to the city. She commits a crime; he helps her escape but is himself arrested for vagrancy and sent to jail. Sal returns to the country and promises to wait for him.
Lured to New York with false promises of having her play produced, Lila Lake is forced to accept a secretarial position with Mrs. Julia Hewitt, a dashing young widow secretly married to Jimmy Duval, son of Alice Duval, a prominent society leader. Alice seeks the aid of young lawyer Philip Thorne, who hires detectives to follow Julia; the latter, however, has left town with Jimmy, and Lila has agreed to impersonate her.
Madame Vavin dies alone in a small French village without knowledge of her second marriage in England known to anyone. Consequentially her first husband James Fullerton and his tyrannical sister Cornelia take custody of her young daughter Dora. The puritanical pair take Dora to America but disapprove of her spirited nature especially when Dora decides upon a theatrical career. On stage, Dora meets and falls in love with playwright Willard Holcomb, but the fears implanted by Fullerton and his sister make Dora incapable of romantic commitment. As she despairs of her fate, Professor Vavin, who has spent years searching for Dora, discovers his daughter and explains there is nothing to fear from love. Her confidence thus restored, Dora can continue with her life.
When young Mary Carpenter and wealthy Peter Cooper, both carrying luggage initialed with a large “C,” check into a seaside hotel they end up with each other’s bags. Mary, an astronomy fan, has several volumes by Prof. Carl Von Munsternberg mixed in her bag which Peter takes note of before also slipping in a bestseller, "The Road to Love," before returning it to the desk and retrieving his own bags. Peter, trying to avoid a widow who pursues him but still meet Mary, disguises himself as Prof. Von Munsternberg so that Mary will take notice of him. Gaining her acquaintance all is going well until the real professor shows up! Becoming convinced Peter is the thief who stole the widow’s jewels a madcap chase begins that ends with Mary and Peter united at last.
A story is told of a woman who, disinherited after a scandal, later needs expensive surgery. Her father, General Darrington, initially refuses her plea for money, so she sends her daughter, Beryl, to him. The General dies from a falling andiron, Beryl is arrested, and a will favors a lawyer named Lennox. Beryl's brother, Bertie, arrives and provides exculpatory testimony supported by Lennox, who appears with a lightning-imprinted photograph. The siblings eventually discover love between Beryl and Lennox.