Lieutenant Curren of the regular army, is assaulted by Private Roy, of his company, and the latter is sent to the military prison. Known as Convict 125, Roy serves a year of his time, then his desire for revenge turns to repentance and he apologizes to Curren. A pardon is secured and Roy reinstated in the service. War breaks out, and Roy saves the Lieutenant's life on the field of battle but loses his own in doing so. From a locket found on Roy, Curren's wife identifies him as her long-lost brother
Society girl Sybil Lawton is left penniless by her father's death, and though her mother wishes her to marry into wealth, her sole ambition is to achieve fame in the theater. Her youthful charm and talent interest producer Stewart Thrall, who finds her a position with an Omaha stock company. Under Sybil's encouragement, fellow actor Jim Roberts, disillusioned by an unhappy marriage, improves and becomes her self-appointed guardian. Sybil returns to New York and begins rehearsals for "Romeo and Juliet" with Thrall as her costar and Roberts as stage manager. Meanwhile, Thrall's unhappy wife obtains a divorce, and Roberts, recognizing her as the woman who ruined his life, blames Thrall and shoots him at a performance as he bends over "Juliet" on her bier. Thrall recovers, however, declares his love for Sybil, and looks forward to happiness with her.
Arsdale, a candidate for mayor misconstrues the situation when he sees his wife Alice enter the apartment house of gambler Norton. Unknown to him Alice’s sister Mabel had married the dissolute Norton and made her life misery. Norton, recruited by Arsdale’s rival to incriminate his opponent surreptitiously tries to compromise Alice and Arsdale, consumed with jealousy shoots him, ruining all their lives.
In 1876, Lt. Tony Britton of the 7th Cavalry is in love with pretty young Barbara Manning, but the wife of his superior, Capt. Granson, is in love with him and begs him to run away with her. Britton refuses, but is soon sent to arrest Sioux chief Rain-in-the-Face, who has murdered two soldiers from the 7th. He captures his quarry and carts him off to jail, infuriating the local Indians. When Capt. Granson learns of his wife's infatuation with Britton, he makes trouble for Britton, who is soon forced to resign his commission. He signs up as an army scout, and learns that the Indians are planning to attack and massacre the 7th under the command of Col. George Armstrong Custer. Can he get to Custer in time to warn him of the impending attack, and will he--a disgraced army officer--be believed?
Robert Lovell falls in love with his father’s secretary Dorothy Arden and marries her in secret despite his father and his business partner Daniel Casselis’s attempts to arrange a match for him with Daniel’s daughter, also named Dorothy. When circumstances lead to the three young people ending up stranded on a lonely island in the Pacific, complications ensue, especially when Bob suffers a blow which temporarily wipes out his memory and he cannot remember which Dorothy is his wife! All ends happily, however.
Miss Olivia Martindale, at a dinner, announces: "There is no longer any romance in American life," and immediately arouses a storm of protest.
"Now match him if you can, this Reg'lar Army Man. Rattlin', Rattlin', Colt or Gatlin'. Reg'lar Army Man." The daughter of his old pal and bunkie becomes his ward. He finds they have met before, are already in love, so he proposes and she becomes his wife.
Wolf Erickson, captain of the "hell ship" Ellen Miller, returns to port after a very successful voyage. Because of his terrible temper, he is greatly feared by his entire crew. Even his son, John, a boy of about ten years old, is a victim of his father's wrath. The son, however, has not inherited his father's hasty temper.
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.
Starvation faces the little post of Red Gold. Jack Thorpe, in a final effort to obtain food for his wife and baby, offers all his gold for one pound of meat.
Big Bill Branigan, one of the tough characters of London's Limehouse district, falls in love with Curlytop because of her sweet innocence. He leaves his sweetheart, Bessie, for her and resolves to go straight. When he sets out to find a job, the jealous Bessie gets Curlytop drunk and hacks off her long curls.
Bhadon, an aged chemist, actuated by the decree of Buddha that in America the secret of making artificial diamonds would be discovered, gives his life to the cause and succeeds. Elated at his titanic success. Bhadon sends his trusted Hindoo servant to the high priest in India, pleading that Shedah might be spared to assist in disposing of the product. Shedah, the powerful emissary for the cause, is dispatched with her two bodyguards to American soil, where, through her wiles and marvelous beauty, she is enabled to effect sale after sale to the wealthy. This monstrous flooding of the American market with gems of astonishing brilliancy and value alarms, to a marked degree, the Kimberly interests, who controlled this outlet.
John Howland travels to the frozen North to build a branch of the Hudson Bay Railroad. There he meets and falls in love with Meleese Thoreau who warns him that her three bloodthirsty brothers, Max, Pierre and François, have sworn vengeance against a man named John Howland, the son of a man who killed their mother, and that torture and death await him along the route to his station.
Among the many beautiful and exciting romances that saw birth, blossomed and grew, during the dark and foreboding days of our great Civil War period, was that of Arthur Deming, the young Confederate officer, and his Southern sweetheart, Alice Munroe.
Huri, an East Indian, calls upon young Putnam on business, and while there the native leaves his most prized possession. Then strange things happen.
Her husband was just what she was not, cold and brutal and even a little criminal. He earned his living in God knows what way, but once he boldly boasted that he and a confederate was to rob a house. She pleaded with him to forsake the dishonest plan, but he laughed and hurled her aside. She sobbed and begged, but he merely enjoyed her tears, and left the house. Outside he met his accomplice. The little wife followed him, caught up with him on the corner, and again pleaded with him to return home. In his rage he turned and struck her on the head. The woman fell and did not rise again. The two ran off. A little later she was found lying there by a farmer and his wife, who revived her. She did not know who or what she was. Her memory was a complete blank.
Marion Leonard plays a young woman struggling to earn a livelihood by writing stories. The plot takes the path of looking at that phase of modern literary life.
Bessie Trenton grieves over the fact that her brother is neglecting the support of his wife and children. At last she determines to obtain a position for him in the office where she is cashier. One day her brother steals some money. The girl notes the missing money, and the disappearance of her brother points to his guilt. She returns home at once. Her employer returns to the office, sees the open safe, the missing money, and at once suspects the absent cashier as guilty of the theft. He calls at the house, just in time to see her with the money in her hands, which she had been given by her brother, and announces herself as the guilty person. The detectives find a man's watch fob, just in front of the safe. The clue is followed, and at last the guilt of the brother is fastened upon him. Bessie is liberated, and thenceforth she appoints herself as the breadwinner of her guilty brother's family.
When the actress learned that if she married the man his father would disinherit him, she was rather determined for his sake not to marry him. When his father, at the point of death, suddenly had a will drawn up leaving everything to his wife, and then commissioned his attorney to go out and find a woman who would marry him, it was she whom he met and to whom he broached the daring offer. And she accepted. When she learned that she had married the father of the man she loved, and that she had everything and he nothing; they arranged a plan of their own whereby the fortune would be more equally distributed.
A girl champions the cause of the strikers at a mill.