Life's Greatest Problem

The plot concerns a war hero who returns home determined to give up his old ways as a crook. Bud Doyle (Milton Sills) is still being hounded by the cops, and both his wife (Marcia Nanon) and a former associate, a dishonest politician, want to do him in.

Dr. Stannard Wayne -- like all "good" men of the times -- is a God-fearing soul. He marries the former mistress of his friend, Dr. Arthur Richards, without knowing her past. Richards, an abortionist, resumes his affair with the woman and runs off with her. But before he leaves, he frames Wayne for one of the illegal operations he has done, and the innocent man is sent to prison for five years. When he gets out, Wayne has become angry and cynical.

When his aunt disapproves of his marriage to Mabel Deering and threatens to disinherit him, Percy elicits the aid of his buddy Billy Haskell, who is engaged to Eileen Stanley. It is arranged that Billy and Mabel be found together in compromising circumstances by Percy and his aunt, but matters are complicated by the arrival of Billy's uncle in the city, and Aunt Emma becomes very fond of him. All is subsequently explained and thoughts of "divorce" are smoothed away as Uncle Todd couples up with Aunt Emma, and Billy and Eileen, and Percy and Mabel, reinstitute their carefree engagements.

U.S. Secret Service agent Truxton Darnley attires himself as a sailor and boards a schooner owned by arms smuggler Gus Olsen, who is in the employ of German spy Von Linterman to smuggle arms to German raiders in the South Seas. Truxton learns Gus’s plan to blow up the National Munitions Plant in San Francisco, just before his identity is discovery and he is thrown overboard. Washed ashore on the island of Moana, Truxton meets native girl Lurline. Promising to return to her, Truxton boards a steamer bound for San Francisco to foil the plot and soon afterwards Lurline’s father sells her into marriage with Gus. Escaping to Truxton's steamer, Lurline sails to San Francisco where Gus abducts her forcing her to dance in his Barbary Coast saloon. Truxton raids the bar, kills Gus is killed and the lovers are reunited.

Grace Ainsworth wants to return to her career as an opera singer, and her mother-in-law supports her. Grace's husband, Edwin, wants her to stay at home and to convince her, he relates the story of his latest play about a man who allows his wife to return to the stage. Edwin comes to believe that Grace is in love with Harold Chase, a manager, and the couple separates. Edwin has an affair with a dancer, Madeline, and he winds up in a fight with her dancing partner, Vincenti, which causes him to lose his memory.

When Richard Barton's health fails, his wife Helen, desperate for money to pay the medical bills, agrees to spend the night with the wealthy Howard Barton, without knowing that he is Richard's long-absent brother. However, after she tells Howard that she is selling herself in order to help her husband, he calls off the rendezvous and sends her home with enough money to pay for Richard's care.

A love quadrangle in a Western mining town leads to fisticuffs and reconciliation before the fade out.

Barbara Rand is blinded when she leaps through a window to escape an assailant. Her sister, Natalie, reluctantly abandons her fiancé, Ned Gardiner, and marries Oliver Landis, who can provide the money needed for Barbara's operation. Unaware that Oliver was Barbara's attacker, Natalie blames his business partner, Howard Pollard, who was with Barbara on the night she was injured. Natalie holds Howard at gunpoint, but when her husband arrives, he promises to deal with the villain making sure Howard falls to his death. Upon Barbara’s release from the hospital, Oliver tries to blind her once. Natalie threatens him with a pistol, but Oliver wrests it away from her. He then realizes that he can no longer hide his guilt from Natalie or the police and shoots himself. Barbara has been avenged, and Natalie is free to marry Ned.

Jack Straw (Warwick) is an iceman who becomes a waiter to be closer to the girl (McComas) he is interested in. Later, to impress her, he impersonates an Archduke from Pomerania. A Count from Pomerania (Brower) who is the ambassador arrives and learns of the long-missing son of royalty. The girl's mother (Ashton) learns of the trick being played by Jack. Just when Jack is exposed as being a fraud, it turns out that he is the genuine article.

A six-part adaptation of William J. Locke's novel "Where Love Is."

Hafsa, a beautiful Arab girl (Lenore Ulrich), wants the right to choose her own mate, instead of the husband picked out by her father, Malik (Herschel Mayall). Naturally, the man she falls in love with is unacceptable, since he's an American.

Edward Abeles and Theodore Roberts as a couple of prospectors who get involved with greedy city types on a business trip to New York.

Joe (Tearle) and Bessie (Ayres), living in sin and just scraping by. Bessie thinks Joe has stolen their meagre savings, so she leaves him and becomes a manicurist eventually marrying a wealthy man who turns out to be stingy and cruel. Joe saves heiress Marion (Mills) from drowning, makes good as a civil engineer and eventually marries her. Joe and Bessie meet again by chance and Joe, in helping her to keep her secret, incurs Marion's jealousy. Bessie, extorted by a former acquaintance in desperation, decides to tell everything to her husband. However, to aid Joe she accuses Wallace (Miljan), with whom Marion is preparing to go away. Finally, Joe and Marion are reconciled, but Bessie learns that the world never forgives a woman who sins even when she has reformed.

Young William Burroughs comes from wealth but not nobility, so despite his income he is not welcomed when he pursues Lady Elizabeth Galton, and indeed he is not only beaten by her cousin but thrown out by his own father for the disgrace he has caused. He travels to the United States where he becomes a champion prizefighter. Upon his return to England, he finds circumstances quite changed for Lady Galton and he sets out to change her circumstances further.

Divorce lawyer Maurice (Matt Moore) does not pay much attention to his wife Alice (Florence Vidor). When he spends their anniversary with famous actress Marianne (Louise Fadenza) Alice decides to seek a divorce herself.

A young girl is betrothed to a rich Count by her family who have hopes of partaking in the Count's fortune. A parson who loves her uses his pulpit in a scheme to shame the family into allowing the girl to break the engagement and marry him instead.

Button Gwinett Brown is a freshman congressman on a mission to rid Washington of corruption. He quickly runs afoul of the powerful Senator Norton...

A policeman doubles as a gunman to get in with the mob.

Jean, a wealthy young Canadian back from a trip to Europe, meets and falls for Carmen, a pretty young Spanish girl. They marry and have a daughter, but soon afterward Jean discovers his wife is having an affair. She takes her daughter and leaves him, and Jean's luck gets even worse--he loses his business in a fire and his thieving father-in-law steals what little money he has left.

Langley Barnes goes to the North Country to seek peace, after being deserted by his wife, and falls in love with Christine, the daughter of Angus Garth, a factor made mad by the isolation. Despite the fact that he is not divorced, Langley marries Christine in an illegal ceremony. Captain Churchill arrives to erect a radio transmitter and, returning to the United States, marries Langley's wife, who has in the interim obtained a divorce. Churchill broadcasts news of the divorce to the North Country, and Langley and Christine can now become legally married.