A rich man's enemies cause him to lose his money, his best friend (his dog), as he goes to jail. Once free he spends all his time hunting for his lost dog.
Extremely condensed version of the Mark Twain story of a royal heir and his poor doppelganger trading places.
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.
Annette and Bunny each purchase one of a pair of antique vases, then meet and argue over who should own the matching set. After exchanging the vases in a gesture of goodwill, they end up with the same single vase they started with. Ultimately, they decide to get married and keep the complete pair together as a symbol of their union.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Olive Muir, a haughty society girl, objects when Alice Prentice, a girl of lower station, comes to visit her family. After Alice's drunken father comes to visit the Muir home, Olive learns to her horror that she is adopted and that Prentice is her real father.
Virginia Dean enjoys a yachting trip with her father. She falls in love with the captain of the boat, John Reynolds. A gang of criminals has stowed away on board and they take over the yacht and set her father and the crew adrift in a small boat. However, they keep John and Virginia on board. When the yacht catches fire, they all abandon ship and take refuge on a nearby tropical island. Blackie Slade, the leader of the villains, rouses the natives to attack the others
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.
Obscured by modesty and the ethics of the old school, old Doctor Jones, a master of his profession, pursues his practice in the village of Condon. A shunner of publicity and fame, his wife's work is wrapped up in promoting the welfare of his fellow-beings.
The pretty daughter of a French-Canadian backwoodsman incites the love of a trapper who is so smitten with the beauty of this wood nymph that he purchases her into marriage from her father. The transaction meets with repugnance from the girl. She was entirely contented with conditions, a child of nature, carefree. However, she finds her pleading of no avail, and so pretends to accept the situation. The trapper and Canadian go into the cabin to seal the bargain with a drink, and while inside the girl closes and fastens the door on them and makes her way through the woods to escape.
A wife offers to support her artist husband by teaching piano. She can't find work at the conservatory, and ends up working in a laundry, without telling him the truth. When he discovers her lie, he is determined to leave her, until she is injured and he understands the sacrifice she made for him.
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.
During a stay at beach resort Mr. and Mrs. Randall neglect their daughter and follow their own interests. Mrs. Randall entertains the local minister, while Mr. Randall agrees to take his daughter on a walk along the beach. However, he is attracted by a flirtatious young woman, and the little girl wanders off on her own. She clambers onto a seaside rock where she falls asleep, unmindful of the incoming tide. Her parents at last notice her absence and begin searching for her. However, the incoming tide has by this time surrounded her rock, cutting her off from land. A lifeguard hears her cries and swims to the rescue just as the rising tide is about to engulf her. The child is returned to her parents, who receive from their near tragedy a salutary lesson in the importance of being more careful parents.
Financier Mark Harrold is responsible for the financial ruin and subsequent suicide of Stanton. Following his death, Stanton's daughter Margaret, seeking revenge, goes to work for Harrold's beloved daughter Helen. The latter plans to marry the dashing Lord Strathmore and thus attain her social ambitions, but Margaret, to avenge her father's death, wins Strathmore away from her by deception. After their marriage, Margaret leaves Strathmore, claiming that she never loved him. With the birth of their child, Margaret becomes ill and blind, but Strathmore finds her and gives her money under an assumed identity. Following an operation that restores her sight, Margaret recognizes her husband as her benefactor and realizes that she loves him.
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.