Floss Brannon, expelled from college for mischievous conduct, marries Chester Framm, a struggling young student who aspires to be an orator. When Chester's salary as an insurance clerk proves insufficient for the couple's needs, Claire invents a complexion cream called "Angel Bloom." Deciding to combine Chester's oratory prowess with the promotion of Angel Bloom, Floss rents an elephant, coats it with the cream and plans to have Chester pitch the product from the back of the animal.
Alisa Graeme journeys from Scotland to the U.S. to visit Jeremiah Wishart, an old wealthy friend of her grandfather. The invalid Jeremiah is charmed by Alisa and decides she would make a good wife for his favorite nephew, David. Without meeting Alisa, David refuses the arrangement and runs away. Later, Alisa also runs away rather than wed another of Jeremiah's nephews and meets a young billboard painter in the country.
Wade Hildreth is sent to New York from London to receive a diamond necklace for Lady Gwendolyn from the jeweler Arabin. A gang of crooks led by Pete Fielding, known as "The Shadow," plans to keep Hildreth from going to Arabin's until they have robbed the store. Actress Morn Light, whom the Shadow loves, agrees to entice Hildreth to her apartment to be imprisoned. When she warns Hildreth because she wants to avenge her father's death, which was caused by the Shadow, the Shadow overhears and captures them both.
Manhattan model Marion Buckley hesitates to accept a marriage proposal from wealthy upstate department store owner Warren Rogers, a widower with two daughters, because of her previous affair with her employer Leon Kessler, who had promised to marry her.
A daredevil flyer delivers the night mail despite threats from weather and robbers.
Freckles, a one-armed orphan tired of being tormented by others runs away eventually finding a place as a watchman in the timber camp, The Limberlost. He falls in love with Angel but feeling unworthy of her keeps his feelings silent until a near catastrophic incident reveals the bond between them.
An escaped lunatic threatens the romance of his wife and her new suitor.
The First Distiller
A reporter is related the tale of a girl from an isolated colony descended from the English survivors of a shipwreck.
During the Civil War, Rachel Hayne, a young widow, is among those "held by the enemy" when her old family home is within the lines occupied by the Northern troops. Protected by Colonel Prescott from looters and the unwelcome attentions of Surgeon Fielding, Rachel begins to fall in love with the gallant Yankee officer. Their romance is disrupted when Rachel's husband Gordon, long reported dead, is captured as a spy and condemned to death.
Tom Denton comes from the East to the Northwest lumber region and becomes co-owner of a lumber camp with Howard Patton, whose bored wife Vera insists on flirting with Tom despite his discouragement.
Mary Lawton bids farewell to her father, Mark Lawton, and his business partner, John Adams, to whom she is engaged, leaving Arizona to study art in New York. After a time, John visits Mary unexpectedly and discovers to his sorrow that she has forgotten him in the convivial whirl of her new life.
Basil Breckenridge, a broken old man on the verge of starvation, but concealing it because of his proud southern ancestry, is set upon by young ruffians on the street. The old man becomes infuriated and gives the young leader a shaking. His father, Ald. Connors, the city's political boss, happens along and attacks the old man, who strikes at him with his cane. The sword blade inside falls out and the police arrest him on the charge of assault with intent to kill.
Richard Craig and Paul Hessert, who work in the same office, are great chums. Both are in love, however, with the stenographer.
In the mountains of West Virginia, Alderson Cree is mortally wounded in an ambush by Kip Ryerson, after Kip's wife, Martha, seeks refuge at the Crees's home for herself and her stepdaughter, Eileen. Cree makes his young son, David, promise to avenge his death once he has grown into manhood. As David Cree runs for help, Alderson recants and instructs Martha Ryerson to release his son from his promise. However, to eliminate her brutal spouse, Martha Ryerson remains silent, and George Hedrick, the local storekeeper, leads a crowd to drive Kip out of town. Hedrick later announces Kip's death, relieving David of his obligation to his father. Years pass, and David, now an adult, is engaged to Mary Reddin. When Kip Ryerson returns to town, David's mother demands that he keep his promise to avenge his father.
Henry Potter is the irresponsible playboy son of a New York millionaire. Fearing he will disgrace the family name if he stays in New York, the father sends him to San Francisco to work in the family shipyards and, to make a man out of him, he is told he will have to start at the bottom and work his way up. Henry decides this is not a good idea and resents it to the point he will indeed start at the bottom but will work his way down from there, and disgrace the family name in San Francisco.
When Mona Frentiss dies, she has her confidante "Doctor Bobs" watch over her family, especially her youngest daughter Patricia. The family has been raised in a most unconventional manner, with Mona having a much younger lover and the father Ralph keeping his own lover on the side. As Patricia grows older, she attracts the attention of her mother's former lover, the much older (than Patricia, who in the book is in her early to mid teens) Carey Scott. Patricia tempts fate with her wild ways, nearly loses her virtue to a musician aboard an ocean-going boat, and is saved in time by Carey. Realizing that he is the man for her, she settles down into an experimental marriage.
The film is a romance about a young woman named Suwanna who is the object of affection for many men. In her search for true love, she has many adventures and mishaps, including overcoming her father's disapproval, before finally finding her soulmate. It was one of first feature films to be made in Thailand, and was the first Hollywood co-production in Thailand. Unfortunately, nothing of the film exists today except for some promotional materials and other ephemera held at the Thailand National Film Archive.
Frivolous young Marie de Severac is frightened into following a more virtuous path, when her father relates a story in which an equally frivolous woman is entombed alive. The movie was Rex Ingram’s directorial debut, and he later remade the film as Trifling Women in 1922. Black Orchids is considered to be a lost film.
A criminal mastermind uses a "death ray" machine to bring down government airplanes. Police dog, Silverstreak, aids in capturing the insane inventor of the machine. Masked aviator Pilot X is part of the "Air Hawks" gang who threaten the Baker Aircraft Company. Pilot X's actions are focused on stealing Baker's Aerometer, a revolutionary navigational instrument. World-famous aviatrix, Fawn Nesbitt, aids in combatting the attacks on Baker's aircraft.