Colomba
In 1826 came into California by way of New Mexico and Arizona Sylvester Pattie, a Kentuckian, his son James and one other man. Though they had passports from the American authorities, Gov. Echeandia received them with great harshness, tore up their passports and threw them into prison. They were liberated after one year mainly through the influence of Donna Ysidora Sepulveda, whom James Pattie afterwards married.
American author John B. Smart, searching for solitude and an atmosphere for a new story, purchases an old castle in Switzerland. He discovers the beautiful Aline hiding with a baby in the east tower. Daughter of an American millionaire she on running from her ex-husband Count Tarnowsky, who squandered her money and treated her brutally, but whom the courts have awarded their child. The Count arrives confronting John who overcomes him and has him thrown into the dungeon. Smart, Aline and her child flee on a sleigh speeding towards the Italian border with the escaped Count in pursuit. In the nick of time they safely cross the border and Aline consents to be John's wife.
A jockey finds himself caught in a web of corruption. He is heavily pressured to "throw" The Derby, one of the most prestigious horse races in the world. The primary source of this pressure is the wife of a Member of Parliament, who is deeply involved in gambling and uses her influence to try and manipulate the outcome of the race for her own financial gain.
Railroad executive Anthony Blake while navigating a divorce from his discontented wife brings his loyal secretary, Cara Deene, to live at a farm, paying her to act as his companion, which leads to scandalous misunderstandings.
John Rapley, head of Associated Baking Companies, executes a commercial coup that raises the price of bread to 6 cents a loaf. The price increase has a devastating effect on Mary Quinn, a Valencian factory girl who supports her younger brother Joel and sister Norah. Because of the higher cost, Mary can no longer afford to buy as much bread as she previously could for her family, impacting her ability to provide for them.
In the Old West Charles Garvin and Clarice Winslow are happily engaged. One day artist, Ed Gardner arrives seeking lodging and is welcomed into Clarice's home, where he meets the young cowboy. However, when Charles must depart for a round-up, Ed begins to charm Clarice, who seems amused by his company and a triangle develops.
When her husband Jim strikes it rich, Grace, who has had a lifelong fear of poverty, strictly raises her daughter Florence to accept only luxury. When Florence is old enough to have suitors, she quickly rejects penniless artist Durland and marries rich playboy Alfred Griffin, but soon learns that he is an unfaithful spendthrift, so they soon become bitter enemies. In a final effort to ruin Florence's life, Alfred neatly arranges evidence to make her look like his murderer, then commits suicide, but the butler saw everything and is able to clear Florence of this charge; afterward she rushes to Durland and they plan to get married.
Thrown out of her home by a jealous husband, a woman sinks into degradation. Twenty years later, she is charged with killing a man bent on harming her son. The son, unaware of who the woman is, takes the assignment to defend her in court.
Mr. Bretton's wife decides she would rather pursue an opera career, so they separate, leaving him to raise their young daughter Daphne (Mildred Harris). She is expelled from boarding school after Richard Wiltoner is found in her room under innocent circumstances. Her father sends her to the Adirondacks, where she meets a rogue and soon elopes with him. When her father discovers that he is a bigamist, he has their marriage annulled. Happily, Mrs. Bretton returns to her husband and Daphne and Richard fall in love and marry.
Vera Souroff, a young Russian girl, is kidnapped off the street and raped by one of three officers of the Czar's guard. The crime is brought to the attention of the Czar, but Vera cannot tell which of the three officers is the guilty man. The Czar orders Count Nicho, the eldest of the three, to marry the girl, turns over the trio’s fortunes to her and imprisons the men. When the revolution breaks out, at the risk of her own life, Vera saves her husband knowing he holds the key to the identity of her attacker.
Little Joyce Fairfax loves her thoroughbred colt “Satan.” When financial difficulties force her young, widowed mother to sell her estranged grandfather, Judge Boyce, who had disapproved of her mother’s choice of husband, buys him secretly. When the judge also suffers reverses, he enters Satan in the Dixie Stakes where the unscrupulous Silas Morgan tries trickery to prevent the colt from running. He almost succeeds until a mysterious rider comes to the barrier, and rides Satan to victory. When Mrs. Fairfax hastens to the paddock, she finds Joyce very muddy and soiled in her jockey colors, just then Judge Boyce arrives, and the trio are reunited.
Little Joyce Reynolds’ parents are estranged with Joyce living with her mother. Distressed Joyce, her friend Eddie and the local doctor devise a plan to bring the couple back together.
Andrews, a former shipping clerk, has amassed a fortune in cocaine and therefore discourages his daughter May's romance with Joe, a policeman. Andrews prefers socialite Roger Hastings, whom May marries but soon discovers is a drug addict. While May is recovering from a nervous breakdown precipitated by the knowledge of Roger's addiction, he slips cocaine into her medication. Soon she also is addicted, a fact which Roger delightedly reports to Andrews. Andrews then commits May to a sanitarium and Roger becomes a procurer for a gang of white slavers. When the gang abducts his sister Julia and takes her to Roger's brothel, he turns against them. Julia is released, and after many complications, Roger returns to Andrews' house and, during a struggle, sets the house on fire, killing them both.
A DA's son gets involved in a drug-related murder, and it's up to his father and sister to get him out.
Wealthy widower Richard Sinclaire's 12-year-old daughter Joyce has everything she desires except the companionship of other young people.
Jimmy, a waif chimney sweep, sees Joyce while cleaning a chimney in Colonel Wynne's magnificent home, and believes that she is the most beautiful girl he has ever seen. He clips a curl while she sleeps and leaves note explaining that he "Tuk the kurl bekawse yure the purtiest gurl I ever saw." Donaldson, the colonel's close friend, adopts Jimmy, who grows up into a well-educated young man. Joyce likes him immediately, but he has a rival, Carl Bellou. Jimmy writes a note to Joyce informing her that one of her suitors is the little chimney sweep who has striven ever since to make himself worthy of her. He tells Bellou about it and the latter hurries to announce himself as the chimney sweep. "I had hoped it was Jimmy," she tells him, and Jimmy enters in time to hear her words. He has the ring with him.
The day after the funeral of their beloved daughter, Mrs. Mason unexpectedly meets young orphan Joyce and is struck by her resemblance to her lost child. She and Mr. Mason adopt her and for a while all is well until Joyce begins to suspect Jenks the new butler. Her instinct proves correct: Jenks is the tool of Jim Vaughn, notorious leader of a burglary ring. One night while Mr. Mason is out trying to resolve some business difficulties, Jim Vaughn breaks into the house. Joyce, awakened, hears him removing valuables, aided by Jenks. Desperate, she grasps her foster father's revolver holding them at bay while phoning Mason. Arriving with the police, Vaughn is captured. Joyce is presented the $5,000 reward which she turns over to Mason, solving his problems.
On the morning of her 11th birthday, Joyce reads in one of her gift books that she should perform a good deed. After giving the $5 gift to an old man in the park her mother reprimands her and warns her that old men steal little girls. She goes to the park the next day to see if this is true. Her old friend assures her it isn’t, and she invites him to come to her home. Hiding him in the attic she hears the story of how he left his little girl with friends’ years before, and when he returned, all trace of her had been lost. When Joyce’s parents return the old man recognizes Mrs. Farley as his long-lost daughter much to the delight of all except Joyce, who pouts that she can have nothing of her own without others sharing it. So, she invites a host of human derelicts in to dine, insisting that they too have lost their little girls.
Mario Campanini, a theological student, makes the serious mistake of neglecting his young and pleasure-loving wife, Rita. Her dissatisfaction grows, until she meets the Count di Turino. The Count is very attentive and almost before she knows it Rita is infatuated with him. One night she elopes, leaving a simple note for Mario, who is stunned. At the count's home Rita is happy, for the Count is very good to her, but one day her curiosity leads her to try one of several locked doors in the castle-like home, and there she finds the Count is keeping in seclusion an insane wife. Now she knows the reason for the Count's many absences from home, during which he was supposed to be engaged in "diplomatic work." Horrified at what she has learned, Rita forlornly returns to her husband, but he sternly orders her to go back to her titled lover and stay there; she has become one of the Unforgiven. At this point Mario awakes from his terrible nightmare just as his wife smilingly enters the room.