Count Von Herbeck, the chancellor to the Grand Duke of Ehrenstein, is married but keeps the fact secret on account of his high ambitions. His wife, dying, writes him a letter urging him to make their little child a great lady. A lost film.
To start a little in advance of our story, Lord Rintoul, of the English nobility, finds a little Gypsy girl three years old, who had been deserted by her parents. Fifteen years later, Gavin Dishart, the Little Minister, receives an appointment, his first, at Thrums, Scotland. This was made possible through the self-sacrifices of his widowed mother, to educate him for the ministry. The community of Thrums is made up of weavers, who work hard, have little and accomplish much. They are ultra-religious and look upon their pastor with such reverence that he is a little lower than the angels. While naturally intelligent, they are grounded in dogma and intolerance. Just after the Little Minister takes charge of the "Auld Licht Kirk" and the Manse, the weavers resent a reduction, by the manufacturers, in their pay and a strike is declared.
Jack Darling of the North West Mounted Police is ordered to track down and arrest murderer Alec Young, whose girl, Dancing Pete, performs in the Nugget dance hall. En route to Nugget, Jack meets Hope Ross, who is caring for her sister's baby. Although the two fall in love, the outlook for a happy romance appears hopeless, because he believes that she is a married mother, and she thinks that he is an outlaw.
A New York fur saleswoman falls for a man she meets on the subway and must decide if she wants to accept a much dreamed for work transfer to Paris, or stay and get married.
Two engaged vaudeville magicians quarrel and go their separate ways.
Bertha Sloan loses her job as a sewing-machine girl and subsequently is employed as telephone girl with a lingerie manufacturing company. She soon falls in love with the assistant shipping clerk, Roy Davis, and is promoted to chief model for the firm, owing to the patronage of Morton, the wealthy and wicked manager. Bertha is about to take a position in Paris as designer when Morton lures her to his home.
Based on the David Belasco stage production of the Max Marcin play in which heavyweight-champion Jack Dempsey played the role of the fighter, Tiger: This "behind-the-scenes look of a heavyweight-championship fight" looks much like all of the other boxing films in which the Champ gets involved in a frame-up and is asked to take a dive.
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.
William Lowry rescues Claudia Royce from a burning building, and upon hearing that her parents are trying to force her to accept millionaire Leland, whom she does not love, he proposes a marriage of convenience to himself. She accepts, and Bill arranges a fake ceremony; but when she falls in love with Davidge, Bill refuses her a "divorce." Later, Bill gets rich in the manufacture of a patented fireman's pole, and when he buys a house for Claudia she realizes her love for him and they are legally married.
Newland Archer is engaged to May Mingott of a prominent New York family. Shortly after the engagement is announced, Newland finds himself attracted to May's older married cousin Countess Ellen Olenska.
Figures Don't Lie is a showcase for the physical charms of lovely Esther Ralston, who in one scene proves the accuracy of the title by donning a fetching one-piece bathing suit. The main story concerns wise-guy insurance salesman Richard Arlen, who through a combination of hard work and sheer gall lands a job as sales manager. But he can't land heroine Ralston, who has remained cool to his charms ever since he tried to make a play for her on the street. A lost film.
Wealthy Anne Wilmot vacationing along with her aunt Katherine at her fiancé Leon Morse's (Hull) Arizona mountain lodge discovers his plot to destroy a nearby hydroelectric engineering project in order to obtain the land for his railway. She thwarts the sabotage but find herself in a life and death struggle.
Clarence Brooks is a shy, timid man working for Mr. Flavell. He is love with Flavell's daughter, Nancy. Nancy is shallow and fickle, always chasing after other, less-upstanding men. Clarence enlists when World War I erupts. While Clarence is off defending his country, Nancy's mother arranges for her daughter to marry the wealthy Mr. Braille. When Braille is drafted, Nancy's mother starts arranging a rush wedding, against Nancy's wishes. Nancy claims that she and Clarence are already secretly married. When the war is over and Clarence returns home, he refuses to be a part of her charade. When Clarence declines the offer to marry Nancy for real, she must mature to win his affections back. A lost film.
The adopted Irish daughter of the Rosensteins, Second Avenue pawnshop owners, Rose is much sought after by Tim McCarthy, a wealthy Irish contractor many years her senior. Meanwhile, Nat, her adopted brother, is accused of stealing from his firm and is arrested and put in jail; Rosenstein, heartbroken, becomes seriously ill.
Fannie joins Johnny to perform a music-hall act which becomes a success, until two Broadway producers catch the act and offer Fannie a job on their latest show; however, they have no place for Johnny, so Fannie turns down the offer. (Film considered lost.)
Japanese poet Akira living in Tokyo, loves American Ruth Vale, who was placed in the care of Akira's father when her missionary parents died. Ruth returns Akira's affections until she meets Edward, but the American proves an unfaithful husband. Three years later, Ruth is gravely ill while Edward amuses himself with his new lover, Adrienne Chester, but Akira comforts the dying woman with the promise that he will protect her little daughter Blossom.
What must a man do in order to put an end to his bachelorhood? For George Finch, one of nature's white mice and probably the worst artist ever to put brush to canvas, there are many obstacles. Undoubtedly the greatest is his beloved Molly's fearsome stepmother, Mrs. Waddington, who has her eye on an eligible English lord for a son-in-law. Luckily, George has an ally in sharp-witted Hamilton Beamish, an old family friend of the Waddingtons, not to mention George's butler, Mullett, and his light-fingered girlfriend, Fanny, whose valuable skills are of particular interest to the would-be father-in-law.
Press agent Jack Bartling persuades a local Suffragette leader, Mrs. Eubanks, whose husband is a Senator and soap manufacturer, to hire him for publicity. He falls for her daughter Nell and through various schemes and a bit of subterfuge Jack convinces both parents he’s the right guy for their daughter.
Ben Jordan runs away after accidentally setting fire to a barn in his small New England community. He returns when his mother dies to find that she has left everything to her ward, Jane Crosby.
Marty Reid, the star quarterback at Sanford College, is constantly singled out by the opposition for punishment, and he swears to his pal, Honey Smith, and to Coach Wilson that he will quit the game forever. Ed Kirby, who dislikes Reid, calls him yellow, and Wilson gets Patricia Carlyle, the college vamp, to induce Reid to play. At a sorority dance, where only football players can cut in, Kirby persecutes Reid by dancing with Pat, and as a result Reid does apply to play in the game.