Daisy Smith (Marceline Day), a floater and non-desirable citizen in most societies, seeks refuge on a tropical island in the South Seas. She meets Jim Curtis (Don Alvarado), another society-outcast and a piece of human driftwood, and a romance takes place that regenerates both and they sail back to the United States determined to start life anew.
Captain Angus Swope (Noab Beery), known as The Black Yankee, skipper of the Golden Bough, treats his crew shamefully and he treats women no better, as evidenced by his handling of a woman he has abducted, together with her baby daughter, Mary (Sally Blaine), from seaman Newman (Willard Robertson). When the woman dies as a result of his cruelty, he brings up Mary as his own daughter.
In a banana republic, way south of the Texas border, a dumb-Dora American girl, Norma (Olive Borden), lets her ruby-red lips promise more than she is willing to deliver, and she finds herself a prisoner in a notorious dance-hall/brothel. But her American aviator boyfriend, Barry Blake (John Boles), is flying to her rescue. He does just that but, alas, they are quickly captured by a gang of outlaws. Possibly the many expensive pieces of jewelry she has gathered from the many male friends she has made along the way, including El Presidente, captured the outlaws' attention.
A mechanic works for his sweetheart's father, who builds racing boats. He begs for and gets the chance to race a new-design boat, but his rival gets him intoxicated before the race and he wrecks the boat. Now he has to make good and show he has the right stuff.
Wealthy Jack Stimson (Jay Belasco) falls in love with Broadway diva Velma Vrooman (Gretchen Lederer), and for her sake bankrolls the musical production in which she is currently starred. But when Velma proves to be fickle and unreliable, Jack shifts his affections to humble chorus girl Bobbie (Louise Lovely).
Broken Fetters
Gabrielle Picard (Elda Hall) and Pierre Dupont (Rupert Julian) are lovers in a small French village in the early 1870s; Gabrielle's brother Anatole (Kingsley Benedict) is Pierre's best friend. The two young men are called to service by their country and go to Algiers. Anatole becomes the bugler and one day when he is commanded to sound the retreat, he sounds for the troops to charge instead. Anatole becomes a hero because of his action, but when the two men make their victorious return home, they find the Picard home ransacked and Gabrielle gone.
To assuage his grief over the death of his wife during childbirth, newspaper publisher John Briscoe resettles in Paris. Twenty-five years pass, during which time Briscoe's estranged son Jason has taken charge of his dad's newspaper. When Jason refuses to support crooked politician Stange in an upcoming election, he receives a cablegram from Briscoe Sr., who overrides his son's decision.
In the little Italian home the wife feels she is neglected and apparently it seems that her husband's love is growing cold, for he has become decidedly indifferent. She, therefore, plans with her cousin to arouse his love through jealousy. At an Italian picnic, after repeated vain efforts to draw her husband's attentions toward her, she starts off with her cousin, passing in view of her husband. His fiery nature is violently aroused with jealousy, and rushing home in a towering rage, would have wreaked disaster to the entire family, for his terrible suspicion poisons his mind even against his two little children. He learns the truth, however, and realizes now to what extreme the result of his neglect would have driven him.
It is hubby's birthday and the wife wishing to surprise him, surreptitiously interviews the jeweler's clerk to order a gold watch as a present. Her mysterious action arouses suspicion in the husband, who follows her at a distance and witnesses the meeting between her and the clerk. The hour arriving for the delivery of the watch, wifey goes to the door to meet it, and while standing outside, the door closes and locks on her skirt, holding her captive. Having no key, she induces the clerk to climb through the second story window and come down to unlock the door. All would have been well, but the clerk encounters the husband and it looked had for the clerk for a while.
Hubby is anxious to get away for a little time at the beach with the boys, and works up a quarrel with wifey over a new hat, the bill for which he is asked to pay. Making this excuse, he goes off with his chums. The wife is an expert swimmer and diver and is invited to attend a meet of the ladies' swimming club, of which she was formerly a member. Her husband's treatment induces her to accept the invitation. The affair takes place at the very beach to which the husband hied himself. One may imagine that hubby has not only plunged into the cooling waters of the surf, but into domestic hot water as well.
Newly elected police court judge John Fairbrother is impassioned when it comes to the laws affecting the dives and cabarets of the city, and promises equal justice for all.
Police headquarters has been plagued by a series of robberies, culminating in the theft of a priceless necklace smuggled from Europe. The detectives are on the track of a gang led by master thief Ramon Mordant and his accomplice known as "the Face" because of his twisted and hideous countenance.
When an aviator dies performing in a traveling circus, the circus closes and sideshow con men "Sky-High" Billy Wardell and "Domino" Dominick are arrested for giving out fake watches to wheel of fortune winners. After Domino springs the jail's lock, they jump a freight train and arrive in the next town, where Billy falls in love when Jane Higgenbotham allows them to breakfast on her freshly baked pies.
James Brieson, a wealthy stockbroker, ruins Hutch Valiant, who soon after dies of the shock. Valiant's son Steele returns from the Northwest, where he won his fortune, just before his father's death and decides to devote his life to the cause of revenge.
"Wild Cat" Betsey Dawley, whose father, "Handsome Harry," was disowned by the proud Dawley family of Greenburgh, Kentucky, meets and thoroughly charms her snobbish cousin Virginia's fiancé, John Davidson, at a picnic. At the start of the Civil War, John becomes a Union officer, while Betsey and her father staunchly defend the South. When Confederate Colonel Morgan, the leader of the intrepid band known as "Morgan's Men," commissions a young horseman to deliver an important message to the Dawley mansion, the rider is shot and Betsey takes his place, breaking through the lines and successfully accomplishing the mission.
After divorcing her husband Kent, actress Anne Wetherall returns to the stage. Upon receiving a plea for help from childhood chum Nell Jerrold begging Anne to save Nell's daughter Betty from marrying Kent, the ex-Mrs. Wetherall decides to journey to the Jerrold's home in the town of Wheaton to investigate.
Pink film by Sachi Amano
Infatuation is based on Caesar's Wife, a story by Somerset Maugham. Dazzlingly British socialite Viola Morgan falls madly in love with professional soldier Sir Arthur Little at a dinner party. The two marry, and before long Viola has relocated to Egypt with her husband. Soon bored by her hothouse existence, Viola succumbs to the attentions of young British attache Ronald Perry.
An officer in the British Guards takes to drink when a friend and fellow officer convinces the woman they both love that he has another woman.