Based on a play by Edward Bulwer-Lytton. Originally released in six reels, but later cut to four due to poor reviews. A lost film.
The story is laid in Italy, during the 17th century, and concerns itself with the love and suffering of David, a great painter. Unknown to David, his betrothed has a brother in prison, and his shame is kept hidden for the honor of the family. This brother, escaping from his cell, goes by night to his sister's room. David, coming to serenade her, sees the brother leave her window; thinking her false, casts her off, and she is too proud to tell him the truth. David, heartbroken, goes to a monastery to seek refuge from the world in seclusion. While there, he learns the truth. A great revulsion of feeling takes place in his heart. A mock sees his grief and begs him seek solace in painting a masterpiece for the altar. This he does, but is stricken to the heart. Gianetta on her way to church sees him weak and ill, crossing the plaza. She follows to his studio in the church. There they come to understand each other, but too late.
Doris Moore is a country girl who is conned by two crooks, Harry Leland and Pop Clark. They convince the naive girl to come with them to New York City and play the badger game on William Lake. But the intervention of Kate Fallon, who runs the gang's New York home, saves the innocent and traps the guilty. Instead of tricking Lake, Doris marries him.
Somehow Good
Fred Rees proposes to Edith Shanlon, contingent on her mother's approval, which is initially denied due to the mother's desire for a wealthy match. A dream reveals the potential unhappiness of such a marriage when Edith's mother envisions Edith married to a wealthy man who neglects her. The dream, filled with infidelity and public humiliation, convinces the mother that a loveless, wealthy marriage is not worth it. Upon waking, she happily grants her consent to Fred and Edith's union.
Jimmie and Molly are a pair of sibling thieves-he a burglar, she a shoplifter. When Jimmie is arrested after a bungled job, he advises Molly to move somewhere new and follow the straight and narrow, which she does. However, when Jimmie participates in a jailbreak, he makes a beeline to disrupt her new life. A chance for escape presents itself but Molly pleads with Jimmie to surrender pointing out he’ll never be at peace if he doesn’t. Jimmie relents. His term served, Molly and Jim resolve to lead honest lives and their reformation is complete.
After the Duke of Lorenzo discovers the Duchess with her lover, Count Riccardo the men duel leading the Duke’s 20-year banishment. During that time, the Duchess and their daughter go to America, where her daughter dies. The Duchess returns to Italy with a young companion, Anna De Voe, who is taken by all as her daughter. American artist Harold Dean sketching the villa’s grounds assists the Duchess when she has an accident that renders her an amnesiac. Meeting Anna the pair share an attraction, but the Duke who has returned from his exile and assumes Anna is his daughter, insists she must marry in honor of her ancestors. Anna, who is in love with Harold, reveals the truth and Harold is happy to find that no line of ancestry separates them.
A young woman with a Spanish father and an American mother living in Spain under the supervision of a strict aunt slips out to attend a bullfight. There she becomes fascinated by the toreador Carrita. A lost film.
A maid in the politician's household is bribed to call on the young man late at night, for the purpose of establishing a scandal which he is to be forced to sell his paper in order to hush up. The arrangements, overheard by the daughter, are frustrated by her locking the maid in her closet, and impersonating her herself. The result is comical and satisfying.
Allayne Norman's husband Bruce is a gambler and drunkard who kills her artist cousin in an argument. Bruce flees the studio with Allayne and their son, and places his identifying documents in the pockets of an amnesiac man. To avoid the consequences of his actions, Allayne identifies the man as her husband. When Bruce returns, he tries to kill the man but is shot instead. The man regains his memory and is cleared of wrongdoing.
Ironworker Ned is putting money aside for a rainy day unlike his two sandhog co-workers Bill and Grogan who spend most of their money at the saloon. One day on the job Ned is saved from severe injury by Bill and Grogan tries to convince him to take advantage of Ned’s gratitude to extort some money. Later Ned and Grogan get into an argument and Grogan sworn to revenge attempts to get Bill to drown Ned, but the plan goes awry. Bill and Ned reconcile, eventually becoming business partners, Grogan goes to jail.
A physician advises Helen Blair to seek a different climate. She is without money. Philip Cobb, her daughter's sweetheart, tells them his employer, Richard Standing, has refused him an increase. Thus Mrs. Blair discovers the whereabouts of Standing, whom she rejected years before to marry Blair. Standing treats her savagely when she appeals to him. His son, John, overhears the conversation and, seeing the girl, forces them to take the necessary funds to save the mother. The father discovers his love affair and sends him to Honolulu. The jealous Cobb gets a letter from a friend there and forges a new note telling that young Standing has become a drunkard. Ailene and Cobb are married. John Standing returns after months and he and Ailene learn of the deception. Cobb repents his deceit and drowns himself.
Wealthy miner, Ben Cameron's son, Bruce, becomes the criminal "The Shadow" after being disinherited for spendthrift ways and theft. "The Shadow" attempts to extort money from Mary, Cameron's former love who is married to a struggling bookkeeper. Eventually he is shot and killed by his father, Ben, during a confrontation over the extortion attempt. In the end, Cameron collapses in grief, while Mary and her husband remain unaware of the dramatic events.
Manuel La Tessa, son of a wealthy South American family, meets Natalie Chester, a young Kentucky woman whose horse has won a race at a South American track. Manuel gives a party in her honor, where she is insulted by one of the guests. Manuel knocks down the offender. The offender, whose father is a powerful figure in the country's politics, challenges Manuel to a duel, but also hires a man to hide in ambush and kill his opponent. Manuel is only wounded and Natalie nurses him back to health. Natalie loves Manuel and seeks to uncover the mystery of the bullet fired at him during the duel. A lost film.
Driven from home because of his father’s temper, 20-year-old Frank Bradbury struggles to control his own strong emotions. When a schoolmate harasses his sweetheart, Rose Claybourne Frank attacks him and is expelled from university. After becoming engaged to Rose they return to his home, seeking his father's consent for their engagement. Their mothers are hopeful for reconciliation, but Frank’s father is enraged. Frank arrives while the father is attacking his mother and Frank kills him with a paper weight. Brought to trial he is acquitted on the grounds of justifiable homicide and Rose and he marry.
This film combines four short films under the title Bits Of Life. The Bad Samaritan is taken from a story in Popular Magazine in which the son of a Chinese father and a white mother is sold into slavery by his father. The boy becomes a criminal and a cunning but cruel thief. The one time he stops to help a lady in distress he is thrown in jail. Wesley Barry is the young boy and Lon Chaney the grown-up criminal.
A lost film.
John Dowling, a greedy factory owner, cuts his employees' pay while raising their food prices at the company store. The employees strike but to no avail. Mary Garvin visits Dowling to plead the laborers' cause, but because her mother had once refused his marriage proposal, he attacks Mary out of revenge. In the struggle, Dowling is shot, and Mary is tried and convicted of murder. Before the execution, foreman "Bull" Thompson boasts that his bullet killed Dowling during Mary and the factory owner's struggle, and Dowling's son Chester, who has attempted to introduce reforms into the factory, races to the governor's train to secure a pardon for Mary. After Mary's release, she and Chester are married.
Chorus girl Peggy Malone, supporting her father and brother, marries press agent Jimmy Parsons. They settle into a quiet life until her "shiftless" relatives move in, causing marital strain and financial pressure. To escape the domestic chaos and support her family, Peggy returns to the stage and eventually joins a motion picture company in Los Angeles. She quickly becomes a famous film star, continuing to provide for her ungrateful family while Jimmy moves to Arizona to recuperate from failing health. While filming a dangerous stunt, Peggy is seriously injured. During her recovery, she is forced to choose between the wealthy admirer Martin Fox and her husband Jimmy, who travels to Los Angeles to win her back. Peggy chooses love over wealth, reuniting with Jimmy (now a successful scenarist) and finally finding true happiness.
In Corsica, Marianna Paoli's brother is killed by an Englishman whose identity is unknown to her. She swears vengeance and tracks the killer to Monte Carlo. There she falls in love with a handsome young officer, only to discover that he is the murderer she has sworn to punish.