A colonel saves a prince's life when he joins a club of men who draw lots to kill one another.
A man breaks into a flat, startling the occupant. They argue about the new girlfriend of the 'burglar', who's come to get her stuff. Then a third man bursts out of the cupboard...
Prosecutor Olsen's lover, the singer-songwriter Betsy, leaves him for a new passion. And he, speaking in court as a prosecutor, remains deaf to the dictates of feelings, a ruthless servant of the harsh Law. Some time later, Betsy kills her new lover in a fit of jealousy; Olsen, who retained his feelings, nevertheless becomes her accuser at the trial. He seeks the condemnation of Betsy, but comes to the realization that he lived unrighteously, allowing himself to be judged, becoming a servant of Themis. Exit in the classic tradition of the great mute: Olsen commits suicide.
Under an assumed name, law student Lawrence Kirby courts the daughter of Dr. Cartmell. When she becomes pregnant, however, Lawrence leaves town to escape the responsibility of rearing his illegitimate child. Years later Kirby, now a judge and a stern proponent of capital punishment, unknowingly sentences his innocent son to death in the electric chair on the basis of circumstantial evidence. As the youth is about to be executed, his identity is revealed and the horrified Kirby relents. The judge's plea for mercy is ignored, however, and his son electrocuted. Immediately afterwards, Dr. Cartmell, a longstanding opponent of the death penalty, revives the lad and restores him to his mother.
Two small-time criminals, Bill and Sam, kidnap a wealthy man's ten-year-old son, Johnny, to hold for ransom. Their plan backfires when the boy, who enjoys the kidnapping, becomes so unbearable and difficult that the men end up paying his father to take him back.
After her boss sexually harasses her and has an affair with her sister, stenographer Janet Butler quits to support a mill workers' strike, falls in love with a stockholder named Brooks Insall, witnesses her mother shoot the boss during the strike, is wrongly imprisoned but exonerated by Insall, and ultimately enjoys a happy future with him, her recovered mother, and her sister Elsie.
Rich young Joan Hope is ashamed of how her father made his money--as a chewing gum magnate. While taking a train trip, she meets the Countess of Crex, a member of the Russian nobility--who is, in reality, a jewel thief.
Captain "Wolf" Larsen, the absolute master of a seal schooner, is a mystic and philosopher, though he rules his men with an iron hand. On a ferry going from San Francisco to Oakland, Van Weyden, a critic, and Maud Brewster, a novelist, meet in masquerade costumes and are forced overboard when their boat collides with a steamer. Humphrey, then Maud, are picked up by Larsen's crew. Because of her costume, Maud is taken for a boy and placed in the custody of Mugridge, the cook, who attempts to attack her upon discovering her identity. Larsen takes her under his protection and decides to marry her; but as the ceremony begins, the crew mutinies, and Larsen is stricken with blindness as he faces the rebels. The ship is set afire, and though Humphrey and Maud are rescued by another steamer, Larsen, deserted by his crew, refuses to quit his ship and is enveloped in flames.
Barry Baline, a guard at a subway station, has worked at his job for six years without a day off. One New Year's Eve he's told that he won't be needed until the next morning, so he decides to go out for a night on the town. As it turns out, however, his "celebrating" is short-lived--he is knocked down by a large, luxurious car driven by a man wearing expensive evening clothes. Complications ensue.
A maid is forced to take the place of the lady of the house when she is temporarily incapacitated.
A young girl and her two brothers are sent to a children's home after their older brother, who is the only one supporting them, winds up in jail.
An attractive heiress, Carla (May McAvoy), and David (Ralph Graves), a successful artist, fall in love following an automobile accident. and are married. Their idyll is interrupted by a misunderstanding and she gets a Reno-quickie divorce. Years later a chance meeting brings them together.
Izzy Murphy is a street vendor of scents that falls in love with the beautiful woman (Audrey Ferris) whose picture adorns the perfume bottle he sells. After resourcefully tracing the beauty (whose father(Warner Oland) manufactures the perfume to a luxury yacht, he finds himself in the company of an escaped lunatic John Miljan) who has vowed to murder the perfume manufacturer in retaliation for all the flowers that have been lost in the making of the perfume.
Neil Allison is tricked into assaying some false samples from a young crook's mine. When Neil sees that he has been duped, a quarrel ensues, and Jim Starke, the youth, is stabbed by an unknown assassin. Neil runs away thinking he has committed murder and becomes the unwitting partner of the victim's father.
Following the Spanish-American War, a soldier is given the assignment of finding the leader of a band of rebels in the Philippines. In order to do this, he must romance Roma, a cabaret spy working for the rebels. This does not please the daughter of his commanding officer, whom he is romancing.
Law student Bob Ward, short on money, takes a job as a "dancing companion" at a roadhouse, where most of his clients are women looking for a little excitement outside their marriage. He falls in love with Sallie Smith, a cigarette girl at the roadhouse, but wealthy young wastrel Tom Mannion also has his eyes on Sallie. Tom persuades her to attend a party on his yacht, and since Sallie has had a fight with Bob over his job, she accepts. Complications ensue.
Martin Sondes is an easy-going cowhand going up against a shady, saloon owner called "Square Deal" Fenton, whose chief means of making money is befuddling cowpuncher's brains with liquor and then cheating and robbing them of their money.
"Specs" White owns a garage in town and is the local baseball team's #1 pitcher--but he's more interested in working on his latest invention, a new and improved gas pump, than pitching on the team. A scout for the Los Angeles Angels professional baseball team offers Specs a contract. He accepts, but only so he can use the money he gets to work on his invention. However, Specs has a secret he dare not tell anyone--he's scared to death of large crowds. Alice Hobbs, the young, pretty owner of the Angels, tries to help him with that problem, but a misunderstanding causes another problem. this time between Specs and Alice.
Bernice Randall, who has forsaken the love of her sweetheart, Tom Richards, to marry for wealth, turns down Richards' proposal after the death of her husband, and she is denounced by him as a slave to silver. Lavishing the greater part of her fortune on her daughter, Janet, Bernice determines to give her the advantages she herself lacked. Despite her mother's disapproval, Janet scorns the affection of Larry Martin, a life-long friend, after meeting Philip Caldwell, a wealthy sophisticate. Worried over Janet's growing attachment to Philip, Bernice determines to win Caldwell from her daughter, and in a confrontation involving the girl and Richards, now a millionaire, Janet is disillusioned in her mother and Caldwell. Learning of her mother's sacrifice, Janet forgives her and finds happiness with Larry.
A small-town businessman bumbles into blackmail and a real-estate swindle.