In Imperial Russia, Anna, wife of the officer Karenin, goes to Moscow to visit her brother. On the way, she meets charming cavalry officer Vronsky, to whom she's immediately attracted. But in St. Petersburg’s high society, a relationship like this could destroy a woman’s reputation.
Harold Armytage is disowned, then framed for murder by his conniving cousin, Clifford, to steal his inheritance. After escaping jail, Harold rescues his wife, Bess, and brings the true villains to justice.
Marian marries Arthur, a party-loving man, hoping to reform him, but he becomes restless and starts an affair with a dancer, leading Marian to seek comfort in her old friend Tom.
Bill Grimm, a taxicab driver, falls in love with Barbara Baxter, from Lyons, New York, the minute she steps off the train, and has him take her to Mrs. Whipple's boarding house, in spite of the interference by Jack Fairfax, Bill's rival. Boarders at Mrs. Whipple's include a prizefighter named "Butch,", his manager O'Brien, and Pansy the maid. This first entry in the series introduces the leading characters in the future films, and a few comical interludes.
A young man spends so much time at work on his airplane that he neglects his girl. She goes out on her own to live the high life, but her reputation is soiled by an adventurer. The young woman resolves to kill herself, and throws herself into the water rushing towards Niagara Falls, but is saved at the last minute by her former sweetheart.
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.
Jack Pepper accidentally fires his gun while forcing a newspaper editor to retract his statement regarding Miss Tulip Hellier, and the sheriff goes after Jack. While hiding out, Jack finds a liquor cache on the Hellier ranch and knows it was placed there as a ruse to distract the sheriff while an outlaw gang runs dope across the border.
A lost film. Teddy Drake is a pleasure-seeking aristocrat who ends up expelled from his exclusive Fifth Avenue club for playing practical jokes and other rambunctious antics. He decides to reform his selfish ways and boards a train heading heading for the Southwest.
Agnes Belgradin is in love with a young doctor, Loring Brent. When Agnes' father dies, her mother takes her on a trip abroad. She insists that the young couple separate before they set sail, and promises that if they still love each other after a year they can reunite. But Mrs. Belgradin intercepts all the letters Agnes and Brent write one another, and convinces her daughter to marry a wealthy Australian millionaire.
Four sisters come of age in America in the aftermath of the Civil War.
Gibbs is a laborer at the docks who, through his hard work and good judgment, becomes a millionaire on Wall Street. He becomes acquainted with the Van Dusens, who have lost their fortune. Mrs. Van Dusen pushes her daughter Marie into a loveless marriage with Gibbs so that the family can retain its social standing. Gibbs realizes, however, that his money cannot buy his wife's affection.
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.
Mr. Brunelli, a roomer at a boarding house, has caught the eye of Kate, the daughter of the woman who owns the house. Kate knows her mother, who doesn't want her daughter to have anything to do with her tenants, will disapprove of Mr. Brunelli, but she soon discovers that Mr. Brunelli isn't quite who she thinks he is.
Loves of a ship's captain on the high seas!
Within earshot of her fiancé Leo Holmes and his friend Bruce Morgan Louise Wilke says she could never marry a man who was a drunkard. Morgan, secretly in love with Louise, gets Leo intoxicated and sends him to her home. Louise breaks off the engagement and Bruce pursues her. Undecided, she slips into a dream where she is mired in a life of misery with Morgan, who has become a worse drunkard than Holmes as well as selfish and brutal. In trying to defend herself from Bruce she kills him with a pair of shears. Holmes, a poor derelict, hears her scream, rushes to her rescue. Louise awakens and sends for Leo.
Because of a storm wealthy Diana Webster and Jimmy Harrison, her Aunt Sue's fiancé, must stay all night at a country hotel. Getting a single room, they pretend they are married to satisfy the concerns of the hotel manager though Jimmy sleeps on a cot in the hall. Another hotel guest, Bruce Terring misconstrues the situation and later when he meets Diana his scandalous interpretation of her escapade infuriates the young woman. She decides to teach him a lesson and show him that "seeing is not always believing" by placing him in a similar unusual position. She hires an acting couple to frame a badger game on Bruce, but they double-cross her, forcing Diana into an extorting scheme from which Bruce must rescue her, resulting in a snappy but happy ending for Bruce and Diana.
Addicted to heavy gambling and strong alcohol, Bert Granger owns a saloon in which his children, Benny and pretty Alice, entertain the patrons. One night, The Stranger interferes in a drunken quarrel and becomes involved in a bitter fight, from which he emerges victorious. He is strongly attracted to Alice, and he strikes up a conversation while, at the gambling table, her father is being cheated in a crooked card game and loses the deed to the saloon. When a reward is posted for Wolf Maclean, The Stranger, who resembles the description given of the notorious bandit, is arrested.
An expose of the methods used by a police-department to extract a confession from a suspect, regardless of innocence or guilt, and the effect and consequences on a family when an innocent member breaks under the interrogation methods and confesses to a crime he did not commit.
John Bentley hates New York City, because of an unhappy romance as a young man, but his son, Ronald, tired of living in Iowa, is determined to take up residence in Manhattan. The elder Bentley therefore conspires with his New York manager, William Workman, to involve Ronald in so much trouble that he will gladly return to the sedate life of an Iowa burgher. Arriving in Manhattan, Ronald strikes up an acquaintance with Meg, a telephone operator, whose brother, Jimmy, has come under the evil influence of Jerry. Jerry and Jimmy rob a wealthy woman, and Ronald is charged with the crime on circumstantial evidence, keeping quiet in order to protect Jimmy.