The story of a ruddy-cheeked rural postman who dabbles in poetry-writing on the side. He utilizes his hobby to spread a bit of sunshine throughout the village, at one point reuniting a long-estranged family.
Dida Ibsen, daughter of impoverished farmers, has, according to her father's will, to marry the main creditor. But she refuses and decides to live with a married man as a mistress, till he gets his divorce. In the town she opens a restaurant with the money of her wealthy lover, from whom she soon gets pregnant, but their dreams of marriage fail, his wife refuses the divorce. After a while, she decides to marry one of the regular guests at her restaurant, van Galen, who spent quite some time in the tropics and because of this is at the brink of madness. Shortly after the marriage his condition worsens and life becomes hell for Dida.
A model in an expensive clothing shop quarrels with another model, and an expensive gown is ruined. In order to pay for it, she asks her father, an artist, for the money. In order to get the money, the father gets mixed up with art thieves
A bank clerk forges a check to help his girlfriend's father. He's found out, but instead of being arrested he becomes a member of a gang of forgers.
Atonement
Prospector Harry Farley returns from Alaska to find that his sister, Helen, has gone to New York with Florence, her blind daughter, after being deserted by her husband, Richard Norman. Under the name of Sidney Heaton, Norman has married Blanche Maberly and fallen in with a bootlegging gang while succumbing to the blackmail of Dick Watkins. Helen dies, Heaton kidnaps Florence, but Harry tracks him to the Adirondacks.
Abandoned on the church steps at birth Jacques Revilly is a pariah in his small hamlet finally heading to Paris to fulfill his dream of being an artist. After three years he has become quite adept but due to his slovenly ways and appearance he has been nicknamed “The Beast” and is once again exiled among society. One night he discovers a young girl who has collapsed in the roadside snow, with the assistance of his one friend Varney they nurse her back to health and “The Beast” begins to mend his ways.
A young author, Everett Dryden Hale, has written a book of such strength and originality that it becomes one of the best sellers. The book is entitled "Waifs" and deals with the underworld, a subject of which Hale, who is a New Englander with a Puritanical strain, knows by personal experience, practically nothing at all.
Claire Curtis, Jimmie Strong and Mary have spent their childhood together in the country. Upon reaching adulthood, Claire goes to New York and becomes a success on stage. Jimmie, who has always dreamed of becoming an inventor, goes to New York to sell the machine he invented, and there he renews his acquaintance with Claire. Soon their old friendship ripens into love. Meanwhile, back in the country, Ralph and David Harding, who are making Jimmie's machine, plan to steal the right to it. Back in New York, Mary appears and informs Claire that she loves Jimmie, and the actress resolves to give her a chance to win him. When it appears that the Hardings' scheme to steal Jimmie's machine will succeed, however, Mary's ardor turns cold. Claire and Jimmie then rush back to the country in time to avert the takeover and save his firm from bankruptcy.
When Carl Evendorr (John Dunn) comes into money, his wife Irene (Kathryn Osterman) becomes greedy and socially ambitious. She foolishly allows a social leech, Mrs. Wharton (Clara Whipple), into her life and the woman does everything she can to manipulate money out of her. Mrs. Wharton and her associates put Irene in a compromising position and her husband walks in and believes the worst.
When Sassoon, also known as "The Wolf” attempts to swindle Dore Baxter out of her grandmother’s farm Garry Lindaberry and the villain’s wife conspire to thwart him leading to a happy conclusion for Dore & Garry.
Abandoned as an infant on a stranger’s doorstep by her faithless mother, Marcella, Dorothea is taken in by Tom & Sarah Wentworth who in time inherit a vast coal mine in Pennsylvania. Now a young woman “Dot” falls in love with veterinarian Dr. Grant Hunter but her social climbing mother frowns on the match. Sara has set her sights on the Marquis del Carnavacchi for her daughter unaware that he is both a mobster and the lover of her errant natural mother. By chance Dot’s real father, Jim Gregory, also resides in the town and as tensions rise, he and Marcella join to save Dot from both harm and marriage to the wrong man.
When Richard Cameron, a secret service agent tracking down international spies, is kidnapped by the enemy, Mirian Somerset, to whom Richard has been surreptitiously married, believes that he is dead.
In the rural village of Mosville, inventor and fire chief Lem Blossom, the son of a pumpkin farmer, falls in love with unsophisticated country girl Mary Griggs. His rival is the worldly Tom Perkins, who is conspiring with her father, Joshua, to corner the pumpkin market. Unable to sell his pumpkins, Pa Blossom turns bootlegger in desperation. Lem learns that the pumpkin crop up north has been destroyed by frost and attempts to corner the market himself by offering a $1,000 prize for the largest pumpkin. When the Griggs home catches fire, Lem saves Mary and Joshua with the aid of his water pump and folding ladder, both of which he invented. Joshua then partners with Lem and approves the young man's betrothal to Mary.
Two friends, Fritz and Theodor, make the acquaintance of Christine and Mizzi, who are also friends. Fritz is immediately captivated by Christine, who is bashful and modest as opposed to the eager, effervescent Mizzi. But even though the love between the two grows, Christine is not the only woman in Fritz’s life. His affair with a married woman will prove to have fatal consequences.
Diantha Ebberly travels with her parents to the edge of the Sahara to meet her longtime betrothed, Herbert Medford, whom she has never seen. She is rescued from a swarm of beggars by an "Arab," then meets him again when she slips out at night in native dress. They fall in love, but Diantha is abducted by Sheik Amud, then returned safely home by the "Arab." The next morning Diantha discovers her fiancé and lover to be one and the same.
Ilda Barosky, a Jewess whose father was killed by Russian soldiers, is a violin student in love with Alexis Nazimoff, son of the Russian aristocracy. Alexis' father arranges a marriage of convenience between Alexis and Olga Karischeff, the daughter of the ambitious minister of police and attempts to shame Ilda at the betrothal celebration. Defiant, Ilda is whipped before the entire assembly. Alexis rushes in to rescue her and terminates his engagement to Olga. In retaliation, Karischeff sentences both Ilda and Alexis to ten years in Siberia as his last official act. The couple attempt to escape their Siberian captivity, are caught and face a firing squad until Count Nazimoff, who has assumed Karischeff's position as minister of police, arrives with a pardon. The couple return home, and the penitent count finally grants them his blessings.
James Rallston, facing financial hardship, marries a wealthy invalid widow with a daughter, Jean, and plots to control her fortune. He orchestrates her confinement in a sanitarium by drugging her and falsely claiming she is insane, with the help of a conniving doctor and sanitarium keeper. Fifteen years later, Rallston has lost Jean's fortune through speculation and seeks help from John Bigelow to recover it, offering Jean as a reward. Bigelow, suspicious of Rallston, discovers the truth about the widow and Jean's father, and rescues the widow from the sanitarium.
Hester Prynne's forced public shaming in a strict 17th-century Puritan colony. She wears a scarlet "A" for having a child out of wedlock while her husband is missing and her lover, a minister, hides his involvement.
In a futuristic city sharply divided between the rich and the poor, the son of the city's mastermind meets a prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences.