Wife of wealthy ladies' man Challis Wrandall, Sara, is called to a roadhouse to identify her husband's body and told that he was murdered by an unidentified woman. On her way home, Sara rescues a young woman who is about to drown herself. Believing the woman, Hetty Castleton, to be the murderer, Sara offers her employment in the Wrandall home as her companion. Because her husband and his family treated her so coldly during her married life, Sara seeks revenge by arranging a romance between her brother-in-law Leslie and Hetty, but the latter has fallen in love with artist Brandon Booth and refuses to marry young Wrandall. Sara threatens to expose the girl, but just then a detective appears and accuses Sara of the crime. Hetty confesses, explaining to the family that Challis had lured her to the inn and attacked her. The Wrandalls forgive her, and she leaves her home in Booth's company.
A reporter and a detective team up to solve the murder of a nightclub singer who had been involved in a divorce scandal.
After locksmith Joe Sands is acquitted of charges he cooperated in a burglary, master criminal Steve Benson, who poses as a philanthropist, asks him to join his gang. Joe refuses, but because his crippled brother needs an operation, he robs a safe. Joe is caught, but Sadie, a member of Benson's gang, saves him. Because Joe again refuses Benson's offer, Benson turns Joe over to the police. Joe is saved from prosecution by the man whose safe he robbed, the physician who operated on his brother. Finally, Joe, Sadie and the brother start life over in the country.
Young London realtor Leonard Tavernake becomes involved with two sisters, one good and one evil, which leads to much melodrama but things work out in the end.
Cordelia Marlowe comes from a society family that has lost its fortune. She falls into the clutches of D.K. Franklin, a crooked lawyer who specializes in blackmail, and finds herself involved in Franklin's scheme to extort money from a family friend. She sets out to protect her friend's money and expose Franklin for the thief he is.
Julian Randolph, a disreputable lawyer, gains an ad interim appointment to the Supreme bench as a reward for fixing a jury that acquits the brother of the political boss of a charge of murder. He was promised the nomination for the full term at the next election, but gains it only through threat of exposure of a bigamous marriage contracted by the boss. Then comes love for a noble woman and the question whether he shall take defeat with honor or gain seeming honor at the cost of his manhood. It is a momentous problem, but he makes a decision that proves him worthy of the robes of honor.
A boxer saves a girl from a noble kidnapper.
In this story the hero is haunted by a beautiful young woman who tries to stab him to death with a knife. This fantasy recurs on each of his birthdays, becoming more and more real as the years go on. He leaves home to secure a place as groom, but arrives at his destination too late. Forced to retrace his steps, he seeks shelter in a little inn, forgetting that the hour of his birth is approaching. In the middle of the night he awakens, terrified with fright… Based on Wilkie Collins' novel “The Dream Woman”.
During the illness of her father, Toni Carter, Milly takes his place as station agent. Both Dave Snowden, a freight engineer, and Bill Mailey love her. Bill, a land express courier, who distrusts and dislikes Dave sees that both the girl and her father favor his rival and decides to disgrace the station agent and his daughter.
A young newspaper man from San Francisco arrives in the Yukon to start a newspaper and conflict ensues. Based on the poem by Robert W. Service.
Having misused funds held in his trust by investing them with his friend, Henry Lowe, Robert Reardon appeals to his future son-in-law, James Calvin, a candidate for the position of district attorney, for help. When Calvin threatens to indict Lowe for fraud if he is elected, Reardon's anger becomes so great that the engagement between Calvin and Reardon's daughter Helen is broken, resulting in Reardon's suicide. After Lowe comes into possession of a check forged by Helen's brother Jack, he uses the document to force a marriage with Helen. Treated brutally by her husband, Helen seeks Calvin's aid, but Lowe frames Calvin, now the district attorney, in a compromising situation with his ex-fiancée. Calvin is about to resign when Helen traps her husband with some marked money, causing his suicide through disgrace. Thus freed, Helen and Calvin find happiness together.
A DA's son gets involved in a drug-related murder, and it's up to his father and sister to get him out.
Suspected of smuggling, Eileen Caverly boards the Connecticut Limited where she befriends Helen Raymond who is traveling with her new husband Bob Guerton. Helen confides they had recently married impulsively, the service performed by a justice of the peace. Shortly after their talk the train is wrecked, Helen is killed and Bob injured. Seizing the opportunity Eileen poses as Bob's wife to avoid capture. Bob’s mother visits him, learning that they were married by a Justice of the Peace, insists they be married by a minister. Bob becomes successful with Eileen’s support, and they have a son. All is well until Cromwel Crow, who knows of Eileen's past, is released from jail. Demanding $5000 for his silence they struggle, Bob enters and in the ensuing fight, Crow is killed. Eileen's secret dies with her adversary, freeing her to continue her life.
Pursued by two suitors, James Brunton and Bob Standing, Grace chooses James followed by a sumptuous wedding at his family home. Suddenly a shot rings out and James’s father is fatally wounded. Just before dying Mr. Brunton makes James promise not to apprehend the murderer. Later trouble arises when Grace suspects James of an involvement the young Helen. Crushed, Grace leaves home settling in another town. Shortly after James has a car accident and is taken to Grace's nearby house. When Helen and Bob arrive, it is revealed that Helen is James’s sister. Mr. Brunton had abandoned Helen's mother Alice years before and it was Alice who fired the fatal shot. James and Grace are reconciled.
Young thief “The Bat” to distract an old bookseller, while his partner, “The Fly,” robs the till, purchases a book at random. Later, after a chase and escape to the Devil's Roost, Old Meg's refuge for thieves, he takes the book from his pocket and is about to throw it aside when the title attracts him, "Electricity Made Simple." Intrigued, the volume opens a new life to him and in time enables him to rescue the bookseller’s daughter Bess when she falls into trouble.
Wealthy spinster, Rachel Innes rents a country house with her niece and nephew for the summer, only for a series of strange occurrences and a murder at the house's circular staircase to lead to shocking revelations about the home's owner and the family secrets within the house.
A detective saves his boy assistant from a bank swindler after escaping a fire by overhead cable.
A detective is drugged with flowers and tied to a sawmill while saving an ex-gambler from a jewel theft charge.
Ranch foreman Kerry has boarded with Kitty Tynan and her mother for five years in western Canada, his past is a mystery to everyone. He is actually an English aristocrat who lost all his money gambling and left the country in search of work. Kerry and his friend Horan own an option on property which crooked lawyer Burlingame is trying to secure. Burlingame's cohort Logan murders Hogan, and is caught and arrested. In the trial, Burlingame forces Kerry to admit his past, and succeeds in preventing Kerry from receiving bank assistance. When Kerry is shot, Kitty opens a letter from Kerry's wife that he had been carrying for five years, and cables her. Kerry's wife arrives and informs him that his last bet in England had turned out to be a $20,000 winner. Kerry is able to use the money just in time to foil Burlingame and secure the property, thus winning prosperity and the affections of his wife.
A young American man arrives in London to claim an estate he has inherited. One of the conditions is that he signs a paper stating he will never sell the estate. When he arrives at the estate he now owns, he runs into a ring of American gangsters there and discovers that the estate is the site of some buried pirate treasure.