Impersonating Little Eva in a third-rate travelling production of Uncle Tom's Cabin fails to earn Nora enough for a square daily meal, and to make thing worse, her stage career comes to a sudden end when the sheriff arrives with a writ of seizure. Nora hops a passing freight but is frightened by a tramp, jumps off, and literally rolls into the town of Wattelville. After being arrested as a suspicious character, Nora is adopted by the kindly Ma Forbes, whose son James works in the local bank. "Pug" Hennessy and "Soup" McCool, two crooks, inveigle the scrupulously honest James into a poker game and, as a result, he is forced to steal $300 from the bank to cover his losses. Impersonating expert safe-cracker Velvet Mary, Nora helps the crooks to break into the bank, but upon opening the safe, she sounds the alarm, and the crooks are arrested. Having learned his lesson, James proposes to Nora, who never again is forced to go hungry.
A doctor poisons his dying friend and is framed by his valet for poisoning his wife's first husband.
The Severed Hand, a society of Italian criminals and blackmailers, swear to kill Danny Dawson, who has turned traitor.
Joyce (Jacqueline Logan), a beautiful and efficient secretary, does her best to take in hand and reform shiftless stock clerk Jimmy (William Colllier, Jr.), with whom she is in love. Despite her tireless efforts, he continues on his downward path. They separate, only to meet a couple of years later, at which point he vows to make himself worthy of her.
Mary and John Rand marry right after graduating law school, but John chooses to join the ministry. After the birth of their daughter, Henrietta, and unhappy in that life, Mary persuades John to consent to a divorce. She resumes practicing law and with the help of Bruce Corbin is eventually elected Attorney General, becoming romantically involved with him as well. Meanwhile, Henrietta grows up neglected and enters a free life of jazz and drinking. She catches Corbin’s eye and he falls for her. What follows is a tale of murder, revenge and redemption.
Three part chronicle of how the rumor of war triggers greed in some men and the comeuppance they suffer because of hubris.
Extremely condensed version of the Mark Twain story of a royal heir and his poor doppelganger trading places.
Through circumstantial evidence, Yvonne Desmarest is branded by Judge Duroacher as the "other woman" in a sensational murder case. She retreats to her father's hunting lodge near Hudson Bay, Canada, where she meets Scarborough, an Indian girl, and Émile (an old trapper who becomes her protector). Realizing his error, Duroacher follows Yvonne, thus precipitating a series of events in which the judge is suspected of murdering Scarborough, and Émile injures Duroacher out of jealousy. Yvonne's name is cleared, as is that of Émile, who has been sought for many years on a murder charge. Yvonne and Duroacher realize their love for each other.
Jimmie Dexter is on his way to college when his mother discovers that her stocks have stopped paying dividends. Jean Hilton, who has always loved Jimmie, offers to secretly stake him using her own inheritance. So Jimmie goes off to college, none the wiser, and gets tangled up with vampy cabaret singer Diana Parish.
Hester Prynne has left Holland in advance of her husband, Roger, to join the colonists in Salem, Maxx. Roger follows her to the new world but upon landing in New England is captured by Indians and Hester waits for him in vain.
A faithless K.C.'s wife elopes with his opponent in a slum murder trial.
Mrs. John Cleveland, victim of an overly-jealous husband, adopts a child but, fearing to bring it into her own household, furnishes another home for it, and places the little girl in charge of a nurse. Paul Horton, ex-convict and former sweetheart of Mrs. Cleveland, returns to the city and finds that his former nurse is the same woman who is caring for Mrs. Cleveland's child. Horton accuses her of leading a double life and demands money to keep the matter quiet. Her diamonds are given to him and he pawns them. The husband, finding the rings gone, places detectives on the trail. Finding that Horton has pawned them he shuns his wife. But Horton shows him a letter which proves that the child adopted by Mrs. Cleveland really belongs to her husband. Though the jealous husband had been unwilling to forgive, the loving wife grants forgiveness.
Bored by the slow pace of life in her little home town, Helen Drayton rebels when her friends and relatives assume that she will marry her friend and escort, Chet Vernon. Helen is so anxious to experience life in the big city that she falls in love with visiting New York architect John Galvin almost immediately after his arrival. Several weeks later, the two marry and move to New York, where, after a series of painful experiences, Helen finally realizes John's selfishness.
Dorian Gray, a young man who makes a pact with his portrait, allowing it to age and bear the signs of his sins while he remains eternally youthful and beautiful. He is lured into a life of hedonism and debauchery by the influential Lord Henry Wotton, and as his moral character deteriorates, his portrait reflects his inner corruption.
Looking through the window of a little Northern Woods church John Carver watches Nan, the woman he once loved become the wife of Julio Cumberland, the most prosperous citizen in the village. Pursued by Mountie Private Dick Osborne, of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police, who loves Nan's new stepdaughter Dorothy, recognizes John and takes Nan aside to warn her. Julio reacts to this aggressively attacking Dick and leaving him unconscious. Later Nan is found dead, and suspicion points to the officer as her murderer until John is captured and admits his guilt when Dorothy prevails upon him to save the happiness.
When architect Lee Ellis is discharged from his position in a large firm and has difficulty in finding a new job his devoted wife Mary invests in a business for him with a small legacy she had received. Soon they become prosperous allowing son Jerry to get his longed-for car, and daughter Betty to attend private school. Jerry goes a little jazz mad and rebels against his mother's influence. He decides to elope with gold-digging flapper Edna Larkin. Mary, learning of the plan, chases and saves Jerry when his train is wrecked though he sustains a broken leg. Seeing he has been foolish he straightens out and the family is reunited.
Clemmy Dawson, the daughter of a sea captain, lives in a small fishing village, where, in the summer season, she meets Jack Avery, who is visiting a nearby resort. When Clemmy is later attacked by Sam Johnson, her father (who does not know the identity of the man who sought to force his attentions on Clemmy) vows that he will force the responsible man to marry her. Clemmy names Avery, and her father proceeds to make plans for a wedding. In the meantime, Clemmy discovers that Avery already has a fiancée and, with a change of heart, she runs off, taking refuge on Lover's Island. She makes plans to marry the villainous Sam, but Avery, realizing that he has come to love her, goes to Lover's Island, stops the wedding, and marries Clemmy himself.
Lillian is an unfortunate woman. After leaving her baby at the door of a hospital she meets David, the author of her misfortune. It is a case of starvation or the "easiest way." She chooses the "easiest way." After eighteen years she again shows up, a social outcast and a tool for David's black profession.
Hal Arnold, a forest ranger in one of the California mountain reserves, in going the rounds, frequently passes old man Carroll's cabin, where Betty, a typical Sierran lassie, is a most magnetic attraction. Arnold frequently leaves the trail at this point and rides up the hill and makes visits with the quaint old woodcutter and his fond daughter. Algernon Fordham, scion of a wealthy New York family, comes into the west on a mining trip and makes arrangements to board at the Carroll's. His style soon attracts the unsophisticated country girl, and for the nonce she turns from the wholesome son of nature toward the man of the world.
A society girl goes to live in the woods with her evil uncle and his wicked housekeeper.