U.S. Secret Service agent Truxton Darnley attires himself as a sailor and boards a schooner owned by arms smuggler Gus Olsen, who is in the employ of German spy Von Linterman to smuggle arms to German raiders in the South Seas. Truxton learns Gus’s plan to blow up the National Munitions Plant in San Francisco, just before his identity is discovery and he is thrown overboard. Washed ashore on the island of Moana, Truxton meets native girl Lurline. Promising to return to her, Truxton boards a steamer bound for San Francisco to foil the plot and soon afterwards Lurline’s father sells her into marriage with Gus. Escaping to Truxton's steamer, Lurline sails to San Francisco where Gus abducts her forcing her to dance in his Barbary Coast saloon. Truxton raids the bar, kills Gus is killed and the lovers are reunited.
Jimmy Nevins--once wealthy and now engaged to Doris Standish--is reduced to poverty and jilted by her when he is befriended by Mary Butler, the leader of a gang of crooks.
District Attorney Holden and his special investigator Betty Higgins are trying to convict brothers Joe and Lou Manson, silk-racket hoods, after they are indicted for murder.
The quiet life style of Ruth Heck and her brother Lem, who belong to a religious sect called the Seekers, is disrupted when a judge imprisons Lem for a crime he did not commit.
During a fashionable country house party, a guest suggests that everyone visit a nearby gypsy camp to have their fortunes told. Jack Harlow, the hostess's son, meets Draga, the gypsy chief's daughter, and immediately falls in love with her. Draga is also attracted to Jack, who persuades her to meet him secretly. Their secret meetings continue, and eventually, Jack convinces Draga to run away with him, despite the significant social divide and the disapproval their relationship would surely face from his family and her community. The plot centers on this forbidden romance and the ensuing dramatic conflict between their two vastly different worlds.
Dr. Stannard Wayne -- like all "good" men of the times -- is a God-fearing soul. He marries the former mistress of his friend, Dr. Arthur Richards, without knowing her past. Richards, an abortionist, resumes his affair with the woman and runs off with her. But before he leaves, he frames Wayne for one of the illegal operations he has done, and the innocent man is sent to prison for five years. When he gets out, Wayne has become angry and cynical.
Gordon Palmer is a lazy and cowardly rich man's son. When he and his fiancée, Aileen Merton, are held up by two crooks, Slug Williams and Beef O'Connell, he passively allows them to take whatever they want. At least he comes to life when they try to steal Aileen's engagement ring -- he scares them into giving that back. Aileen, however, is pretty fed up with him.
Nurse Lucy Weston, seeks revenge and marries a young millionaire she believes is responsible for her father's death.
When his aunt disapproves of his marriage to Mabel Deering and threatens to disinherit him, Percy elicits the aid of his buddy Billy Haskell, who is engaged to Eileen Stanley. It is arranged that Billy and Mabel be found together in compromising circumstances by Percy and his aunt, but matters are complicated by the arrival of Billy's uncle in the city, and Aunt Emma becomes very fond of him. All is subsequently explained and thoughts of "divorce" are smoothed away as Uncle Todd couples up with Aunt Emma, and Billy and Eileen, and Percy and Mabel, reinstitute their carefree engagements.
John Reeves, steel magnate, wagers with his son Chester that he can earn twenty dollars a week and live on it. He procures work in the office of William Hart's steel plant. Against her brother's wish, Hart's sister Muriel adopts a little boy. Hart evens up by adopting John Reeves as his father. Reeves foils James Pettison's plot to ruin Hart. Chester also makes good as a workman and wins the affection of Hart's sister. The father reveals his identity and takes Hart as a partner.
Andrew Maxwell is so intent on creating a universal language that he completely neglects his wife, Laurette, and daughter, Ruth. Laurette decides she wants to return to the stage and is encouraged by Charles Prescott, a former suitor. When Maxwell discovers Laurette and Prescott together, he berates her, and she angrily moves out, taking Ruth along with her.
The Isle of Lost Men is one of those lawless tropical island colonies so beloved of adventure-story writers.
Bonnie and Cliff meet cute when she gives him a lift after his car has broken down. Turns out she’s getting ready to open a beauty parlor and bleaches her hair platinum blonde to drum up business much to the chagrin of a local woman’s group. However, when Cliff’s wealthy mother invites Bonnie to be guest of honor at her yacht party things turn around both business and personally for the pair.
The Jewish Nate Cohen and the Irish-Catholic Patrick Kelly are business partners who are constantly fighting. When they find out that Nate's daughter Sadye and Patrick's son Pat Jr. are getting married in Paris, the two and their wives take an ocean liner to France to stop the marriage. When they get there, they find that the situation has radically changed, and not for the better.
Larry Brewster, partner in the music publishing firm of Brewster and Crow, returns from a trip to find that his partner, J.C. Crow has hired Pat O'Rourke as a song plugger.
The plot concerns a war hero who returns home determined to give up his old ways as a crook. Bud Doyle (Milton Sills) is still being hounded by the cops, and both his wife (Marcia Nanon) and a former associate, a dishonest politician, want to do him in.
Mrs. Brown, who is a widow, finds it a rather difficult matter to clothe and feed her large family of children, so when she becomes acquainted on the beach with Captain Jenks she is not slow in inviting him to her house. That evening the Captain calls with an engagement ring. He asks the widow to become his wife, but just as he is accepted Mrs. Brown's numerous offspring come running into the room. Upon being told that they are her children the Captain nearly faints and does not know how to break the engagement.
For the sake of a woman, Robert Morton serves a prison sentence and is disowned by his father, Henry. He is freed after several years and arrives in San Francisco, California, where he meets Camille Balishaw in a Barbary Coast saloon. She offers Robert shelter and aids in his rehabilitation, but his prison record prevents him from holding a job. After Camille and Robert are married, he finds another job and gradually regains his self-respect. Henry has a change of heart and seeks out Robert, asking him to return home, but without Camille. Robert remains loyal to his wife, forcing Henry to relent as he realizes the depth of their love.
With an eye towards social climbing wealthy Dustan Renshaw breaks his engagement with Janet Preece to wed socialite Leslie Brown. Moving abroad after marriage Leslie welcomes her friends the Stonehays while Dustan is away, accompanied by their private secretary, Janet Preece. Janet's sudden illness compels her to remain, and the two women become fast friends. Leslie learns the story of Janet's betrayal by a man known to her only as "D. R. Devastated to learn the truth Leslie leaves Dustan but as time passes, they are reunited at Janet's deathbed.
A Duel for Love is a 1914 dramatic short.