Life's Greatest Problem

Dick Allison comes to the aid of Mary Ann Hubbard, a young, dispossessed woman in the South, and the two become close friends. Dick leaves the South to move to New York, and Mary soon finds herself in dire financial straits. She decides to ask her friend Dick in New York for help, and travels there to see him. Unfortunately, she arrives at Dick's place on the evening of his bachelor party, but Dick persuades his fiancée, Betsy Caldwell, to put up Mary for the night. Mary soon finds out something about Betsy that Dick does not know.

Jack Straw (Warwick) is an iceman who becomes a waiter to be closer to the girl (McComas) he is interested in. Later, to impress her, he impersonates an Archduke from Pomerania. A Count from Pomerania (Brower) who is the ambassador arrives and learns of the long-missing son of royalty. The girl's mother (Ashton) learns of the trick being played by Jack. Just when Jack is exposed as being a fraud, it turns out that he is the genuine article.

Henri Le Rocque's arrival in an island village causes much anger when he insists upon advanced rental for the land he owns. Accompanying Le Rocque is his nephew Paul, who is recovering from a broken heart. One day, little flower girl Fleurette visits the Le Rocque estate to make a present of a rare flower and is shot as a trespasser. She is nursed back to health at the mansion, and Paul falls in love with her. However, trouble is brewing in the village which will endanger all their lives.

Divorce lawyer Maurice (Matt Moore) does not pay much attention to his wife Alice (Florence Vidor). When he spends their anniversary with famous actress Marianne (Louise Fadenza) Alice decides to seek a divorce herself.

When Richard Barton's health fails, his wife Helen, desperate for money to pay the medical bills, agrees to spend the night with the wealthy Howard Barton, without knowing that he is Richard's long-absent brother. However, after she tells Howard that she is selling herself in order to help her husband, he calls off the rendezvous and sends her home with enough money to pay for Richard's care.

An international jewel thief tries to keep his secret from his niece.

A lonely wife becomes obsessed with furs and keeps bad company in an effort to obtain more.

Joe (Tearle) and Bessie (Ayres), living in sin and just scraping by. Bessie thinks Joe has stolen their meagre savings, so she leaves him and becomes a manicurist eventually marrying a wealthy man who turns out to be stingy and cruel. Joe saves heiress Marion (Mills) from drowning, makes good as a civil engineer and eventually marries her. Joe and Bessie meet again by chance and Joe, in helping her to keep her secret, incurs Marion's jealousy. Bessie, extorted by a former acquaintance in desperation, decides to tell everything to her husband. However, to aid Joe she accuses Wallace (Miljan), with whom Marion is preparing to go away. Finally, Joe and Marion are reconciled, but Bessie learns that the world never forgives a woman who sins even when she has reformed.

A woman with a taste for expensive clothing has four nightmares. An impoverished disabled girl sells her hair, a trapper finds he has an unfaithful wife, the wife of a dying weaver finds she cannot work the loom, and a model harassed by her boss is driven to murder.

Edward Abeles and Theodore Roberts as a couple of prospectors who get involved with greedy city types on a business trip to New York.

Casey flirts with fruit vendor Nina and eats her boyfriend Pedro's fruit without paying. A furious Pedro, a Black Hand gang member, sends Casey a death threat demanding $500. Seeking to escape his wife, Casey alters the note to threaten his "wife" instead of his "life" and tells her to hide. He returns to flirt with Nina, but Pedro captures and locks him in a mill. Both Nina and Mrs. Casey alert the police and join the rescue. At the mill, Nina is angry to see Casey embrace his wife. Mrs. Casey discovers the truth about the altered note, humiliates her husband by stripping him of his uniform, and takes him home for punishment.

Charlie Guest (Charlie Guest) wants to be a golfer. Bert Swor (Bert Swor) is a famous golfer. Thelma Hill (Thelma Hill) only loves the best golfer. Follow Charlie as he tries to become the world's greatest golfer and win Thelma's love.

Thinking he’s performing a good deed stagehand Droppington causes the breakup of the current show when he turns the full strength of the hose on what he supposes to be a fire in the theater. The fact of the matter is magician Mephisto was performing one of his tricks, hence the smoke.

The owner of a shipping line arranges to have his waster son shanghaied on one of his vessels commanded by the tough Captain Svenson. But the son discovers in time and gives them the slip. Instead a clerk working for the company Dick Marlow, engaged to his sister Miriam, is taken instead.

Hafsa, a beautiful Arab girl (Lenore Ulrich), wants the right to choose her own mate, instead of the husband picked out by her father, Malik (Herschel Mayall). Naturally, the man she falls in love with is unacceptable, since he's an American.

Young William Burroughs comes from wealth but not nobility, so despite his income he is not welcomed when he pursues Lady Elizabeth Galton, and indeed he is not only beaten by her cousin but thrown out by his own father for the disgrace he has caused. He travels to the United States where he becomes a champion prizefighter. Upon his return to England, he finds circumstances quite changed for Lady Galton and he sets out to change her circumstances further.

Mark Reid, a young prospector, discovers gold in the Sierra foothills. He meets an old man known as "The Good Samaritan," who counsels him and welcomes him into his home. While he is away registering his claim, another prospector, Mike O'Hara, comes along, and, seeing no one around, takes possession of the gold mine. When Reid returns, the two engage in a struggle. As Reid is about to be overcome, an Indian slips a dagger into his hand. Reid is about to stab O'Hara when The Good Samaritan appears and stops the fight. Reid and the O'Hara set aside their differences and decide to become partners.

The fortune Eve Leslie has inherited has made her is indolent. When her sweetheart, Adam Moore, is called up to war she selfishly tries to prevent his going, but after being inspired by tales of the bravery of women through the ages she sees the error of her ways. Ultimately, she enlists as a Red Cross nurse and cures her sin of sloth.

Jean, a wealthy young Canadian back from a trip to Europe, meets and falls for Carmen, a pretty young Spanish girl. They marry and have a daughter, but soon afterward Jean discovers his wife is having an affair. She takes her daughter and leaves him, and Jean's luck gets even worse--he loses his business in a fire and his thieving father-in-law steals what little money he has left.

Tells of Caleb Plummer, his son Edward and blind daughter Bertha, and rivalry over neighbor May Fielding. May's friend Dot weds John Peerybingle; they find a lucky cricket in their cottage. A mortgage and house on fire figure in the story.