War buddies Whitey and Skeeter have become safecrackers. On a job, Skeeter is surprised by the police and killed. Later Whitey discovers that the lowlife Mal is the police informer responsible for Skeeter's death. Whitey sets out to find his moll Kitty, hearing she has gone to the country to find peace and quiet he finds her in a small town. She is involved with bank clerk Fred Morton, so Whitey pretends he has found someone else too. When Mal arrives in town as the advance man for a con and he pursues Skeeter’s sister Evelyn, Kitty tells the story of her own criminal past to save her. Fred drops her, and Kitty tries to drown herself in the river. Whitey saves her life and exposes Fred as an embezzler.
Princeton Hadley feels obligated to pay alimony to Judith, the widow of his deceased friend Billy Westover, due to favors Billy had done for him in the past, even though the law doesn't require it. Billy had lost his fortune and was recently divorced from Judith before his untimely death in an accident. Princeton later meets Judith, unaware of her identity, and falls in love with her.
Doris is driven from her small New England fishing village when a jealous admirer implies that her mild flirtation with visiting artist Stuart Kendall was an intimate love affair. Arriving in New York, alone and penniless, Doris finds employment in a Greenwich Village café, where she again meets Stuart and agrees to become his model. Unaware of his true intentions, Doris lives at Stuart's expense and innocently evades his advances. Out West, rancher Jack Masterson sees Doris' face on a poster and journeys East to propose to her.
Hal Whitney, an irresponsible young millionaire, befriends Timothy Payne, a wise old college professor whose life had been ruined by alcohol. After "adopting" Timothy as his father, Hal introduces him to his sweetheart, Helen Maynard. The outraged Helen breaks their engagement, certain that Timothy will be a bad influence on her hard-drinking fiancé. However, both men assist in each other's reformation, and Hal is soon reunited with Helen, while Timothy marries Hal's mother, Elizabeth, whom he had loved in his youth.
Joe Morgan, a previously respectable worker, becomes a town drunkard, losing his job and neglecting his family due to the influence of the local tavern, the "Sickle and Sheaf". Joe's daughter, Little Mary, frequently comes to the bar to beg her father to return home. During a confrontation in the bar, a thrown glass hits Little Mary, resulting in her death. Devastated by the death of his child, Joe vows revenge but reforms, ending his addiction and reuniting with his family.
Artist Standish using his wife Mary as his model finishes a painting of the Madonna. When the Connoisseur and the Parishioner inspect the picture, the Connoisseur tells Standish that the model was a one-time paramour. Buying the painting they depart. Standish confronts Mary, who tells him that she believed herself legally married to the Connoisseur. Unbelieving he ejects her and their baby son. Penniless Mary leaves her boy on the steps of a monastery. Years later before becoming a monk the boy is sent to see the world. Wandering into a café he is seduced by Beauty as the other inmates of the place, Lust, Rum, Avarice and Passion dance around him. The proprietor enters; it is Mary. Recognizing the crucifix, she left with him as a baby she persuades him to go back without revealing her identity. After he becomes a priest Mary, now a bedraggled old woman enters his church. She recognizes him and just before she dies her son gives her absolution.
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.
Karsten Bernick is a wealthy Norwegian shipping tycoon and community leader who hides a past built on lies and moral hypocrisy. He was involved in a youthful affair in Paris with a married Bohemian actress; Bernick let his brother-in-law take the blame and fled to America, while also spreading a rumor that the man stole family money. When the wronged brother-in-law returns home years later demanding that Bernick clear his name Bernick tries to protect his social standing and financial empire from ruin, forcing a dramatic reckoning with his deceit.
A widowed farmer, failing in his efforts to find a woman capable of running his household, decides to marry a young woman he believes can fill the bill. Wat he doesn't know is that she is running away from a brutish and violent husband, whom she has discovered is also a bigamist, and that her angry and vengeful husband is looking for her.
Felicia Brett is married to Alexander W. Brett, a bullying and unfaithful man who openly flaunts his affair with Rita. Pushed to her limit, Felicia travels to Reno, Nevada, to establish residency and file for divorce. While in Reno, Felicia encounters her old childhood flame, Dick Belden. Alexander, desperate to avoid a settlement and gain sole custody of their young son Bobby, follows Felicia to Reno. He attempts to manufacture evidence of adultery by trapping Felicia in a compromising situation with Dick. Alexander initially succeeds in using this falsified evidence to take custody of Bobby. However, the story reaches a melodramatic conclusion when Alexander is killed in a sudden avalanche. Because the divorce had not yet been finalized, Felicia becomes Alexander's widow rather than his ex-wife, which grants her both her son and the freedom to marry Dick.
A love quadrangle in a Western mining town leads to fisticuffs and reconciliation before the fade out.
While visiting Atlanta, pampered Northern heiress Olive Thurston meets and marries Southerner John Ames, a member of an impoverished but old aristocratic family. John attempts to force his wife to conform to Southern ideals of womanhood, resulting in many conflicts between the newlyweds, but after a brief separation, Olive and John are reunited, resolving to look for each other's virtues and forgive the faults.
J. Gordon Edwards silent adventure melodrama about a famous poet who is allowed to rule France for a week!
An exposé of the "fake" or "wicked" Bohemian social circles, highlighting the moral consequences of their actions. The film features a "pleasure-seeking" philosophy, evidenced by the intertitle that read, "May we help ourselves to life's pleasures?"
Tim spends his days running with a railroad gang which frustrates his struggling parents. When his father falls ill Tim reluctantly gets a job begrudging being forced into that position, but when events take a tragic turn he realizes the need for him to become a responsible adult.
Jacqueline Floriot is driven from her home by her husband Louis, a deputy attorney of Paris, because of his unjust suspicions regarding her relations with another man. Floriot forbids Jacqueline to see her baby boy, who is dangerously ill, and when informed that the boy believes her dead, she attempts suicide.
To spite her fiancé, who claims to know how to handle women, Rosamond engages in reckless behavior, including racing cars and getting arrested. Climax: After surviving a car crash, she is captured by criminals but eventually rescued, leading to her submissive reform.
Jacqueline Laurentine Boggs, the daughter of an American hog farmer, is schooled in France and comes to stay with an English family. There she brings a dose of reality to her snobby hosts.
Shakespeare Clancy is a jailbird who walks out with a crowd of visitors about the time "Skeeter" Burns, the prison printer, is discharged. Learning that a legacy awaits them in Dodson, the pair depart for the small Western town. Discovering that the bequest consists of a failing county newspaper and a plot of barren land, they hatch a plan to fleece the townspeople by selling shares in a bogus oil well. Problems arise when Clancy falls in love with society editor Alice Whitney. Clancy is conflicted but then they do strike oil! Concluding that his destiny is to be an honest man, Clancy returns to jail to finish serving his term. Slipping into the crowd of visitors, he dons his prison clothes and resumes work as though nothing had happened.
American silent drama film following an early Vitagraph leading man and matinee idol. Prints of the film are held at the Library of Congress and George Eastman House Motion Picture Collection.