Robert Stevens robs the bank where he is employed, and through the efforts of Calvin Stedman, the prosecuting attorney, he is sentenced to six years' imprisonment. While in jail his wife dies and his little daughter, Agnes, is placed in a convent.
Jim Belmont, believing his wife Agnes loves Gordon Daniels, leaves for the Canadian wilderness with his daughter Cuddles and his dog Shep. He is killed by Mike Murdock at Daniels' instigation. Shep aids and protects Cuddles, who was abandoned to the mercy of the elements by her father's death. The dog fetches the trapper Poleon Dufresne, who sends for Agnes. She is followed by Daniels. Murdock confesses his crime to Dufresne. Shep saves Agnes from attack by Daniels and herds him to a cliff, where Daniels falls to his death. Agnes and Dufresne then wed.
Larry Brewster, partner in the music publishing firm of Brewster and Crow, returns from a trip to find that his partner, J.C. Crow has hired Pat O'Rourke as a song plugger.
District Attorney Holden and his special investigator Betty Higgins are trying to convict brothers Joe and Lou Manson, silk-racket hoods, after they are indicted for murder.
Hubby is out of work, and wifey is working as a stenographer, posing as a single woman, in an employment agency. The boss is in love with the pretty typist. He tells her he wants a man right away, and she telephones her husband to come down. He gets the job, which is that of porter. While hubby sweeps the floors and cleans the cuspidors, the boss is holding wifey's hand in the private office. Another suitor, who, also, does not know the stenographer is married, tries to see her and is kicked out by the boss. He tells his troubles to the porter, and then rushes off to tell the boss's wife, for revenge. Hubby listens at the door and is caught by the boss, who tips him to stop spying. The boss's wife, a two-hundred-pounder, arrives just as hubby has gotten up his courage to heat up the boss, and a lively scrimmage ensues.
Father wants Mabel to marry a little, wealthy shrimp. She is in love with Charlie, a big, strapping fellow. Mabel is locked up in the house, but her lover sets the house on fire, and In the confusion runs to the minister's house with her. Father and his choice pursue, but Mabel and her lover hide in the chimney. Father sticks around with a big gun, and Mabel and her lover make up as negroes and are married, father being persuaded to act as best man.
A man is shipwrecked on a South Seas island, and although he has a fiancee back home, he falls in love with a Polynesian girl. When his fiancee finally finds him and arrives on the island to take him home, she finds out that he refuses to leave the local girl, who is now the mother of his child.
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.
Casey flirts with fruit vendor Nina and eats her boyfriend Pedro's fruit without paying. A furious Pedro, a Black Hand gang member, sends Casey a death threat demanding $500. Seeking to escape his wife, Casey alters the note to threaten his "wife" instead of his "life" and tells her to hide. He returns to flirt with Nina, but Pedro captures and locks him in a mill. Both Nina and Mrs. Casey alert the police and join the rescue. At the mill, Nina is angry to see Casey embrace his wife. Mrs. Casey discovers the truth about the altered note, humiliates her husband by stripping him of his uniform, and takes him home for punishment.
When he's fired from his bank job aimless Claude Bennett decides to head West. Once he gets a job as a cowboy on the Flying "U" ranch he restyles himself as Chip and discovers who he really is through a series of adventures.
Clay Whipple is convicted of murdering the governor following an incident involving a cat's eye pin. Whipple is sentenced to death, but a mentalist named Psychic Jack believes he is innocent since Whipple had been hypnotized at the time of the murder. The psychic persuades the judge to grant the condemned man a retrial, and he sets out to uncover the identity of the real killer, during which time he manages to prevent a second murder from occurring.
Andrew Maxwell is so intent on creating a universal language that he completely neglects his wife, Laurette, and daughter, Ruth. Laurette decides she wants to return to the stage and is encouraged by Charles Prescott, a former suitor. When Maxwell discovers Laurette and Prescott together, he berates her, and she angrily moves out, taking Ruth along with her.
Jack Pickford got his own production company when his sister Mary signed a huge contract with First National, and this was its first product. the story takes place in the Blue Ridge mountains, where the Appersons and the Yartons have an ongoing feud.
With an eye towards social climbing wealthy Dustan Renshaw breaks his engagement with Janet Preece to wed socialite Leslie Brown. Moving abroad after marriage Leslie welcomes her friends the Stonehays while Dustan is away, accompanied by their private secretary, Janet Preece. Janet's sudden illness compels her to remain, and the two women become fast friends. Leslie learns the story of Janet's betrayal by a man known to her only as "D. R. Devastated to learn the truth Leslie leaves Dustan but as time passes, they are reunited at Janet's deathbed.
Two young men are aspirants for the hand of Mabel, Henry and Ned, Ned, walking through the park, accidentally bumps into a gouty old gentleman who furiously resents the shock, and Ned amuses himself by tapping the gouty foot with his cane and keeping out of reach of the lunges of the old man. When he calls at Mabel's home he finds to his consternation that the old gentleman is Mabel's father.
Three rivals are aspirants for the hand of Mabel. Dad falls asleep in a rowboat and is set adrift by one, who tries to win favor as a hero by rescuing him, using a motorboat going at lightning speed. He is exposed, however, and his work goes for naught, as Mabel clings to the man of her choice.
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.
Gordon Palmer is a lazy and cowardly rich man's son. When he and his fiancée, Aileen Merton, are held up by two crooks, Slug Williams and Beef O'Connell, he passively allows them to take whatever they want. At least he comes to life when they try to steal Aileen's engagement ring -- he scares them into giving that back. Aileen, however, is pretty fed up with him.
Mark Reid, a young prospector, discovers gold in the Sierra foothills. He meets an old man known as "The Good Samaritan," who counsels him and welcomes him into his home. While he is away registering his claim, another prospector, Mike O'Hara, comes along, and, seeing no one around, takes possession of the gold mine. When Reid returns, the two engage in a struggle. As Reid is about to be overcome, an Indian slips a dagger into his hand. Reid is about to stab O'Hara when The Good Samaritan appears and stops the fight. Reid and the O'Hara set aside their differences and decide to become partners.
The quiet life style of Ruth Heck and her brother Lem, who belong to a religious sect called the Seekers, is disrupted when a judge imprisons Lem for a crime he did not commit.