A tramp is hired to pose as a financier to obtain a Balkan radium concession.
Ranch foreman Kerry has boarded with Kitty Tynan and her mother for five years in western Canada, his past is a mystery to everyone. He is actually an English aristocrat who lost all his money gambling and left the country in search of work. Kerry and his friend Horan own an option on property which crooked lawyer Burlingame is trying to secure. Burlingame's cohort Logan murders Hogan, and is caught and arrested. In the trial, Burlingame forces Kerry to admit his past, and succeeds in preventing Kerry from receiving bank assistance. When Kerry is shot, Kitty opens a letter from Kerry's wife that he had been carrying for five years, and cables her. Kerry's wife arrives and informs him that his last bet in England had turned out to be a $20,000 winner. Kerry is able to use the money just in time to foil Burlingame and secure the property, thus winning prosperity and the affections of his wife.
A DA's son gets involved in a drug-related murder, and it's up to his father and sister to get him out.
Young thief “The Bat” to distract an old bookseller, while his partner, “The Fly,” robs the till, purchases a book at random. Later, after a chase and escape to the Devil's Roost, Old Meg's refuge for thieves, he takes the book from his pocket and is about to throw it aside when the title attracts him, "Electricity Made Simple." Intrigued, the volume opens a new life to him and in time enables him to rescue the bookseller’s daughter Bess when she falls into trouble.
"Matches Mary" has sold matches on the streets of New York for many years and nobody knows her real identity. The truth is that Mary's young son had been kidnapped many years ago and she donned ragged attire while searching for the man, whom she knew, who did it. Years later day she meets him on the street and demands to know about her son, now grown to manhood. The man, now calling himself Foster, escapes but Mary track him to his home. Foster's nephew comes in and announces that he has gotten married while in college. Foster is furious and threatens violence. That night he is found murdered and Peter is accused of the crime, and is put on trial. Mary testifies she was the one who murdered Foster. She is about to be sentenced when a detective brings in a confession from two burglars who admit killing Foster. Peter asks Mary who she is and she replies she is just "somebody's mother." Later, an old friend and a lawyer bring evidence that reunites Mary with her lost son, Peter.
A man assists a woman to dispose of the body of her stepfather....
A barber who mistakenly believes he has killed a burglar and seeks shelter in the home of a manicurist.
Dr. Kramer, secretly married to cabaret dancer Vivian Collins, forces his wife to encourage the attentions of wealthy Tom Bradshaw in order to blackmail Tom's father, Judge Bradshaw. At a masked ball Kramer, costumed like Tom, robs Bradshaw's safe and kills the judge. Mrs. Bradshaw is jailed for the murder, but a suspicious Tom discovers the truth with the aid of Kramer's nurse, Gloria Thomas, with whom he falls in love.
The rehabilitation of "Chicago Sal," a lady crook, is seemingly realized when probation officers send her to the country home of Steve MacLaren to work off money stolen from him by her partner. She falls in love with MacLaren and is accepted as a member of the household. Unable to resist the temptation, however, she leaves the farm with two former colleagues when they come to visit her. MacLaren follows her to the city. She commits a crime; he helps her escape but is himself arrested for vagrancy and sent to jail. Sal returns to the country and promises to wait for him.
A King’s Messenger has important documents stolen by a female spy. The plot follows the messenger’s uncle as he takes action to track down the culprit, retrieve the papers, and unmask the spy.
Broadway star Mona Mainard retires from the stage for marriage to rising attorney John Norton and watches his career climb. Over time she becomes concerned with his at times unscrupulous ways of getting convictions. When her brother is accused of murder Norton refuses to give up the case despite being aware of his innocence because a victory could land him the governorship. Mona takes extreme steps to bring him to his senses and exonerate her brother.
Stage comedian Patrick O'Brien is fired from his job because of his drinking celebration of his son, Jimmy, graduating from college. After the show he meets his son on a cabaret and there meets Abel Finklestein and his daughter, Miriam, and the two fathers form a business alliance, suspected of being bootlegging. They are arrested but are released after it is found they were importing molasses - but Miriam has to promise to marry Sam Berkowitz to secure the release. Jimmy and both fathers are unhappy with this turn of events. This film is lost.
Henry Warner (Herbert Rawlinson) is so broke that he has sold his overcoat and now his landlady won't leave him alone about the rent. When he sees a wallet sticking out of a rich man's pocket, he's desperate enough to steal it. The police give pursuit, and Henry winds up in someone's study. The man who lives there, Middleton (Alfred Allen) has been looking for someone with Henry's nerve and offers him a job (along with an overcoat and some cash): He must steal back a will that Middleton's nephew, Craig (Harry Carter) stole from him.
A girl from Paris' underworld fights for love and survival during a time of international turmoil.
Adventuress Leonie Sobatsky falls in love with a young man named Nevil Trask, and he with her. Trask doesn't know that Leonie is actually the head of an international smuggling ring--and Leonie doesn't know that Trask is an undercover Secret Service agent assigned to break up the ring and capture its head.
A chorus girl breaks a deal with her boss by marrying the rich man she was supposed to ruin.
Valentin Marquis de Sombreiul, alias Monsieur Simon, is known as the great master because he is the leader of a band of Parisian Apaches who mete out their own private justice to individuals who have violated their code in a secret tribunal known as the court of St. Simon. In an effort to cure Eugene, a young American longing for excitement, Valentin induces the young man to witness these horrors with the result that the youth is drawn into the Apache gang and sentenced to prison for one of their crimes. Later, after the master has disbanded his secret society and married Virginia Arlen, a girl from an aristocratic family, he discovers to his horror that the boy whose life he has ruined is his wife's brother. It is then up to him to try and make amends.
Ben Trimble, a country boy visiting the city, becomes involved with a safecracker and finds himself sliding into a life of crime. But chance provides him with an opportunity to redeem himself.
Saxophone player Clyde meets a woman named Flowers, and teaches her to dance. He later discovers that gangster boss "Blackjack" is also in love with her. "Blackjack" is also battling gang boss Mike Luego in a violent turf war.
Lord Percy hires attorney John Stoddard to find the missing Brentwood heiress. Failing his mission, John rescues an orphan named Margot and passes her off as the lost granddaughter. As guilt drives them to confess, Margot’s former abuser arrives and reveals a shocking truth: he killed her parents, making Margot the real, legitimate heir.