Short silent film.
Dorothy Desmond, a naive young woman from Kentucky who becomes virtually penniless after her father (an editor) is shot by a political rival and her mother dies of shock. Believing she has a talent for writing, Dorothy travels to New York to find work at a newspaper. She secures a position and is assigned to the Chinatown section of the city to cover a story, which presumably involves the titular jade necklace and the "perils" hinted at by the serial's title.
Unable to tolerate city life, Sadie Barker leaves her husband Max and with her baby, returns to her birth village; afraid to tell her father that she plans to raise a baby without a father, she pretends that she is still childless and asks Lucy White to look after the infant for a few months. Lucy quickly agrees; hoping to preserve Sadie's secret, she claims that the child is really her own, and even conceals the truth from her sweetheart, Dave Allen. Risking the condemnation of the community, which has already ostracized Lucy for having a baby out of wedlock, Dave decides to stand by his sweetheart. He marries her after Max and Sadie are reunited and take back their child.
Wealthy playboy Jack Edmunds spends some time in a small mountain town, where he makes the acquaintance of local girl Caprtice Talbert and invites her to his apartment. When Caprice's father finds out about it--although nothing happened--he forces the two to marry, and the newlyweds move to Jack's home in the city. Tensions arise between the two as Jack is still resentful over the "shotgun wedding" and Caprice finds that she can't bear living in the big city and wants to return home.
Actress Nina Seabury is primarily interested in her lovers' wealth. Nina begins a relationship with Emory Townsend, whom she mistakenly believes is a wealthy bank president. He is merely a bank cashier. Desperate to fund Nina’s expensive tastes and maintain the illusion of wealth, Emory steals $12,000 from his bank. Despite his sacrifice, Nina ultimately breaks up with him. Following the split, Emory finds true love with Mary Winslow.
Blake, fireman of a light engine, receives a message that his wife is dangerously ill. Benton, his engineer, allows Blake to catch an eastbound passenger train. A hunter shooting as the light engine is passing, wounds Benton who drops unconscious. The sportsman reports the accident. Helen, a telegrapher, receives word of the runaway train. Climbing into the cab of a locomotive in a siding, Helen jerks the throttle wide open. The engine rushes after the endangered express. Discovering his train is being pursued, the conductor of the Eastbound Express gives the signal to stop. Helen slows her engine down and tells of the danger. While the Eastbound locomotive goes to meet the runaway, Helen's engine draws the cars to safety. The runaway is halted in the nick of time. Helen's superb heroism results in her being showered with offers of marriage. But she enjoys her hazardous adventure too much to marry anyone yet. —Moving Picture World synopsis
Rustler Pete Sontag kidnaps Merlin Warner after he kills her father. Pete, a drug smuggler who uses his saloon as a front, coerces Merlin though beatings to become the dancer Mexicali Mae. She meets and falls in love with morphine addict Joe Blanchard but Pete frames Joe for a murder that he committed, forcing Mae to hide Joe in a homestead in the hills. After many struggles, Joe is cured of his addiction and proposes to Mae. She accepts, but when his mother and fiancée Eleanor arrive, they offer her money to leave, Mae refuses the money but becomes convinced that she is not good enough for Joe and writes to him that she is returning to the saloon. Joe learning of his mother’s plot arrives at the saloon and in the resultant fight Pete is killed. Mae and Joe are reconciled.
Jeanne La Roche lives alone with her brother in the great northwestern country. Jacques is a ne'er-do-well and has fallen under the suspicion of the mounted police, two of whom are dispatched to arrest him for robbery. The stolen goods are found in his home. Jeanne is too young to be left in their lonely cabin, so she is taken to the post, where the wife of the proprietor welcomes her and gives her a home. Several years later, Donald McLean wins her for his wife. Meantime Jacques escapes from prison, eludes his pursuers and takes refuge in McLean's home.
Itinerant Scot performers: One daughter of a veteran trouper weds a ne'er do well and dies in childbirth.Her spendthrift man goes but later returns to bleed the old man out of remaining savings.Another daughter makes good as a singer.
An Eastern drifter stakes a claim near Boiseville but spends his nights gambling away his gold. Moll, one of the owners of the gambling hall, tries to help him quit the habit. When is neighbor, Peter Gardner teams up with Moll’s partner, Dick Weed, to try and steal the claim, Moll (who is secretly the drifter’s mother) and Gardner’s daughter, Kate, who is in love with the drifter, attempt to stop them. Gardner nearly succeeds in winning the drifter's claim in a card game, but an amnesiac named Crazy Oby suddenly regains his memory, recognizes Gardner as the man who robbed him years ago, and shoots him. Before dying, Gardner confesses that Oby is Kate’s real father. With the villains defeated and the truth revealed, the drifter and Kate find happiness together and prepare for their wedding.
After divorcing her husband in Reno, Nancy Bell is arrested for speeding and thrown into jail. Unable to pay the fine, she wires her former husband, J. Austin, for help; he comes to Nevada and gets her out of the clink. A blonde crook named Ruby becomes enamored of J. Austin, and Nancy, who still loves her former husband, does everything within her power to prevent J. Austin from falling in love with the gold digger. Eventually Ruby is arrested by the police, and Nancy and J. Austin are remarried by a bemused preacher.
Billy Barnes gets into trouble over a practical joke on a golf course and ends up in jail, despite his high social standing. But he manages to redeem himself with the help of a jewel thief he befriends in jail.
Farmer's son David Wingate marries city girl Vianna Courtleigh over his parents' objections. Her father gives him a job with the company; a baby is born to the young couple; but their happiness is marred by David's desire for a quiet domestic life in opposition to Vianna's love of excitement. David's mother comes to live with them when her husband dies. She observes their unhappiness and, after deciding that Vianna is at fault, determines to teach her a lesson. Eventually Vianna sees the folly of her ways and seeks forgiveness from David.
Yale graduate, Yale Durant, facing financial ruin and contemplating suicide, discovers his fiancée's father is also facing ruin; he tries to save them but ends up in a perilous situation, getting caught up in a family feud and a rival's plot.
Independently produced social drama directed by John Gorman.
Amateur criminologist is hired by the Secret Service to track down airplane thieves, who then kidnap his ex-fiancée, leading to a daring escape and a love story amidst aerial adventures.
Sordid story of an abusive husband who beats his pregnant wife so badly that the boy, Sonny is born with a disfiguring birthmark and abandoned. Growing up on the streets he is taken under the wing of safecracker James Carleton, who arranges for the kid to have a decent home and a good education. In time Sonny becomes a football hero at college, meeting and falling in love with Mary Kayne. When a nasty detective reveals to the girl that her sweetheart is the "foster son" of a notorious crook, Mary declares that she doesn't care and intends to love the hero to the end of her days. But there's still one obstacle to overcome when it turns out that Grey's own father may well be the no-good slug who gave the boy his permanent birthmark.
Irene Martin, hoping to find fame as an opera singer, leaves her hometown for New York but ends up a chorus girl. She meets Henry Galt, a wealthy businessman, who asks her out on a date then sends her money the next day. Offended, she demands an apology, but Galt explains he often hires showgirls to entertain prospective clients on a strictly platonic basis. On those terms Irene accepts. Over time Galt falls in love with Irene and when he discovers her family has the impression she has become a fallen woman, marries her.
A loose adaptation of August Strindberg's Miss Julie. The daughter of a count witnesses her mother's increasing mental instability after being spurned by a lover.
The film depicts the failed 1809 uprising of Prussian soldiers led by Ferdinand von Schill against the occupying French during the Napoleonic War.