Theda Bara plays Princess Zara, who lives on a South Sea Island. A handsome young missionary (William B. Davidson) arrives and there is a romance, which is hindered by various complications including a typhoon.
Wade Hildreth is sent to New York from London to receive a diamond necklace for Lady Gwendolyn from the jeweler Arabin. A gang of crooks led by Pete Fielding, known as "The Shadow," plans to keep Hildreth from going to Arabin's until they have robbed the store. Actress Morn Light, whom the Shadow loves, agrees to entice Hildreth to her apartment to be imprisoned. When she warns Hildreth because she wants to avenge her father's death, which was caused by the Shadow, the Shadow overhears and captures them both.
There is, at once, quite a change in Dot and her sweetheart Robert plainly doesn't like it. After a tussle with a burglar and a cop the couple come to an understanding.
Allen Bancroft of Lancashire is framed by criminals leading to his imprisonment and subsequent struggle to clear his name and find work, all while facing coercion from the same criminals.
A girl's father cannot afford a train ticket, so he ships his daughter by Wells Fargo & Co. Express. He loses his money to a villain and cannot claim his "shipment." The villain attempts to claim her, but the Wells Fargo agent foils the plot and claims her himself.
When she is orphaned Lily Upjohn, from the London slums, becomes a chorus girl at the Pandora Theatre. During a performance a scene painter drops some paint near Lily and her screams prompt the show's composer to create a hit song "Mind the Paint Girl," which Lily makes an overnight sensation. She is courted by young officer Nicholas Jeyes and by Lord Francombe. Driving both men to near ruin she promises marriage to both but in the end choses neither.
Lacking patients, Dr. Sumner sets himself up as a psychologist and opens a sanitarium, becoming quite successful. Virginia Zelva, a clairvoyant who wants to get into what she regards as a racket, signs on as his nurse. Sumner falls in love with Virginia and, after numerous complications, wins her for his bride.
Impressed with Margaret Hill's singing ability, Al Levering takes her from the notorious dive in which she is performing and pays for her musical education. Just as she is about to join an opera company, Levering is arrested for embezzlement and Margaret, out of gratitude, promises to marry him when he is released. Later, Margaret meets and falls in love with nobleman John Ordham. Separated during a shipwreck, the two lose track of each other and five years pass, during which time Margaret has become a famous opera star.
When Arthur Gilpin, a black night watchman, finds young Myrtle Gunsaulus mysteriously murdered in the basement of a factory, he is charged with the crime. The film is now believed to be lost.
Myrtle Downing, an African-American woman, is coerced into marrying a corrupt would-be politician named Gyp Lassiter, even though she is really in love with Stephen Cameron, a young lawyer. When she discovers that her husband has conspired to support segregationist policies in exchange for support by white political power brokers, she objects to his crooked dealings and gets herself imprisoned in a secret dungeon where her husband had murdered his previous wives. Presumed to be a lost film.
The lovely and wealthy Gladys Barnes is pursued by many young men though she favors the persistent Earle. Her head is turned when her father tells her a foreign Count has written with the request to marry her. An amateur artist Gladys paints a portrait of the Count from a photo but the young men at the studio first tease her and then decide to play a joke on her and her father. Sending a telegram that he is arriving early they all dress as different versions of the Count and comic complications ensue until Gladys realizes her folly and returns to Earle.
A Russian peasant girl becomes a member of the Imperial Ballet.
A young man's journey into adulthood, love, and ambition, inspired by a serial by George Randolph Chester exploring themes of love, ambition, and self-discovery, set against the backdrop of the Roaring Twenties.
A young woman with a shady past goes to the tropics, where she winds up marrying a vicious and brutal pearl trader, then falls in love with another man.
In France during the reign of Louis XVI American naval officer Francis Burnham escapes from a British convict ship. He flees to Paris to see Benjamin Franklin only to find him away. At loose ends he becomes indebted to the Marquis de Tremignon who under threat of imprisonment involves him in an intrigue to compromise the Countess De Villars to force her into marriage. While unwillingly purloining one of her slippers the lady catches him, and they realize he had saved her at one time from highwaymen. After many contretemps, the Marquis is disgraced, and the Countess and Burnham are united.
Fernande marries a man and schemes to get his wealth when his expected death occurs. But he dies before he can change his will. She next tries to kill the son who inherits, but he outfoxes her.
A bored Lord saves a fishergirl's lover from drowning
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.
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.