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- Happy-go-lucky cowboy Bob Fleming exhibits such prowess with his pistol, that he wins the three gold coins offered by millionaire Luther Reed to test his marksmanship. Bob also makes an impression on Reed's pretty daughter Betty. The cowboy is so admired by the local citizenry that when crooks J. M. Ballinger and Rufus Berry arrive in town, they decide to make Bob their patsy. After planting oil on Bob's land, they sell stock to the townfolk and the cowboy, who has been innocently drawn into the scheme, turns it over to the crooks for safekeeping. For his efforts, Bob is arrested and found guilty of defrauding the stock holders, and also charged with being notorious outlaw Pat Duncan. After several adventures, Bob succeeds in capturing the real Duncan, vindicates himself of the charges and wins Betty for his bride.
- When Wall Street investor John Trevor faces bankruptcy, his future son-in-law, George Lathrop, promises to lend him $100,000. However, George has squandered his own inheritance and obtains the money by stealing negotiable securities from wealthy Sam Millington, whose son, Jack, has entrusted him with the keys to the family safe. Meanwhile, John's daughter, Alice, suspects George of having an affair with his ward, Clarita Ortega, and breaks their engagement. Jack Millington discovers both the theft and the reason for it but decides to clear George. He then lends John the necessary capital, buys back the stolen securities, and, by faking an automobile accident, convinces his father that the securities have been in his possession the entire time. George realizes that he loves Clarita, who is actually John's long-lost daughter. Alice finds happiness with an Italian count.
- When Mary O'Rourke leaves Ireland to visit her cousin Norah in New York, she finds that Norah and her baby have been deserted by her husband, John Stuyvesant. Mary goes to the Stuyvesants' aristocratic home, where Mrs. Stuyvesant, an invalid, mistakes her for her son's wife. Warned that the woman could die from shock, Mary reluctantly assumes the role of daughter-in-law and nurses her back to health. Meanwhile, John and his cousin Fred return from a trip, and Genevieve Harbison, John's fiancée, demands that they get married the following day to prove that he is not married already. At the church, Mary produces Norah's marriage certificate, which John notices is for "John Frederick," Fred's real name. Fred then explains that his inheritance requires that he not be married until the next day. Genevieve angrily leaves after John agrees to play Fred's role, but when Fred sees Norah, he acknowledges the marriage. Mary then confuses Fred's trustee with Irish blarney and wins the legacy for Fred. She then accepts John's proposal.
- Poverty-stricken John Hargrave is forced to beg employment from rich mill owner Roger Winton in order to save his sick mother's life. Winton refuses to help, and when Hargrave's mother dies, he swears revenge. Eighteen years pass and Hargrave is now owner of a large paper mill, in competition with Winton. Hargrave and Winton's son, Roger Jr., are also rivals for the same woman, Irene Foster, who desires Winton's love but Hargrave's money. Winton, Sr., in an attempted takeover of Hargrave's stock, bribes labor agitators to create turmoil in Hargrave's plant. Hargrave discovers the plot, foils the scheme and discovers Irene's disloyalty. Although stricken with blindness because of the agitation in his life, Hargrave finds true love with his secretary, Margaret Carlisle. Once his sight is restored, he marries Margaret.
- In return for money and medical aid for his invalid mother, struggling author Robert Sandell agrees to subject himself to experiments by Dr. Lamb, who claims he is trying to extend the human lifespan. Despite warnings from the doctor's wife and a hunchbacked assistant, Robert allows himself to be strapped to an operating table, whereupon he learns the true nature of the surgeon's experiments: To prove the theory of evolution by devolving his human subjects into an approximation of their simian ancestors. However, before Dr. Lamb can proceed, the hunchback un-cages another victim, an ape-man, who crushes Dr. Lamb to death.
- Irene, a young girl from a small town, arrives in New York City determined to make it on the Broadway stage. She meets Cookie, a worldly chorus girl who takes Irene under her wing. When Irene falls for young Ronald, his rival Crane sets out to break up the pair so he can have Irene himself--and he doesn't much care how he goes about it as long as he wins.
- Betty Jordan falls in love with Easterner Burke Randolph after seeing his performance in the Broadway hit A Western Knight . When Betty returns home to Montana, Sheriff Sims, her admirer, discovers her photographs of Burke and becomes jealous. Soon after, Burke's touring theater company comes to perform in a neighboring town. When Sims discovers Burke's proximity, he orders his arrest. Burke escapes but is recaptured by a posse. Just as they are about to lynch Burke, Betty rides in and rescues him by cutting the rope, reenacting a scene from the Broadway show. Burke then captures a band of bank robbers, and the sheriff, faced with his own duplicity, releases Burke, who becomes the town's hero and marries Betty.
- Quiet Dick Vernon, who lives in a cheap New York City boardinghouse, spends his vacation at his Uncle Galt's home in the small town of Boonsburg. Dressed in city fashions, Ben is harassed by gossips and chased by young women while he searches for the kind of simple country girl he has seen in the movies. Dick believes Mazie Chateaux is such a girl, unaware that she performs with a burlesque company that is briefly stranded in Boonsburg. When Uncle Galt unexpectedly inherits a million dollars, he gives Dick a large sum on the condition that the young man enjoys the high life when he returns to the city. However, Dick retreats to his quiet existence until his uncle visits, expecting to have a good time. During an all-night party, Dick has another encounter with Mazie. In the morning, Uncle Galt finds her in the apartment innocently preparing breakfast, and insists that she and Dick marry, which they do.
- In Hong Kong, William Neal helps Kirk Marden fight off a group of rowdies. Back in New York, Kirk again turns to William's assistance when his father's rivals plot to take control of the Marden railroad. William teaches Kirk how to open safes so that Kirk can procure papers outlining the takeover plans. While Kirk is robbing the safe, Janet Leslie, daughter of one of the conspirators, enters, and Kirk forces her to marry him so that she cannot testify against him. Kirk succeeds in reconciling his father with his rivals and in winning his new wife's love.
- In the small town of Sycamore Ridge live youthful sweethearts Bob Hendricks and Molly Culpepper; Bob's banker father, General Hendricks; and John Barclay, head of the Golden Belt Wheat Co. When Adrian Brownwell comes to town to publish a newspaper, his cash deposits in Hendricks' bank relieve the banker's worry that an expected bank examiner will discover the shortage in bank funds resulting from Hendricks' support of Barclay. Adrian falls in love with Molly and decides to leave Sycamore Ridge when she refuses to marry him. Barclay threatens Molly with the financial ruin of many whom she holds dear unless she marries Adrian, and Bob returns from the East to find Molly the new Mrs. Brownwell. Twenty years later, Barclay has become a financial power, Adrian has fallen into drunkenness, and Molly supports herself by working on the newspaper, which Bob now controls. In a rage Adrian shoots Bob and flees, and happiness comes to Bob and Molly when word comes of Adrian's death in a railroad accident. Barclay's wife's death leads the financier to believe that he is being punished for ruthlessly crushing his rivals, and he distributes his fortune to those whose businesses he has ruined.
- When vaudeville dancer Milly West is injured while performing, her doctor informs her that she can never bear children. While she is recuperating at Mrs. Babb's boarding house, fellow lodger Tim Ennis falls in love with Milly, who rejects him. When Tim writes his mother that he intends to commit suicide, she becomes alarmed and prevails upon David Muir, a friend of the family, to visit Tim. At Mrs. Babb's, David meets Milly and falls in love, while Tim, who has forgotten about suicide, becomes enamored of the minister's daughter when he discovers that she cooks delicious doughnuts. Meanwhile, David persuades Milly to return with him and recuperate in the country and later proposes to her. Remembering that she can never bear children, she plans to run away; but David discovers the truth and convinces her that they can adopt a child.
- A 'what if' story promises suspense and intrigue when Jim Allen manages to discover a so-called family friend's underhanded schemes that ruined Jim's father and plummeted Jim into a lowly social and financial state of affairs.
- Elderly millionaire James Rance, whose only passion is chess, warns his grandson Tommy, who missed the previous evening's game because he played poker with his uncle Gilbert, that should he miss another game, Gilbert will gain the boy's inheritance. During another poker game the next night, Gilbert provokes a fight between Tommy and another player that results in the other player's supposed death. Meanwhile, Terrence Redmond, the guardian of an orphan he found while fighting in France, falls in love with Dawn Moyer. During Elsie Rance's party at the Hotel Plaza, Terrence gallantly offers to assist Elsie whenever she needs him. The next morning, when Tommy's absence is discovered, Elsie calls Terrence, who, after beating Gilbert's Japanese servant in jujitsu, locates Tommy and Dawn at Gilbert's country home. After Gilbert's attempt to poison Terrence is discovered when a cat dies after drinking Terrence's cream, Terrence fights Gilbert's henchmen with broadswords and wins because of his inherited penchant for violence. Tommy returns in time for the chess match, and Elsie becomes engaged to Terrence's friend Bruce, leaving Terrence free to romance Dawn.
- When Jennie Malone is accused of forgery, her father Black Jerry, the proprietor of an underworld dive, realizes that his daughter deserves a better living environment. With the aid of her Uncle George, he arranges for Jennie to attend boarding school under an assumed name. Once there, Jennie falls in love with Kenneth Harrison, her roommate's brother. Kenneth's father has an unscrupulous business partner named Sam Conway, who kills a man and frames Harry Edwards, an old friend of Jennie's, for the murder. To save Edwards from the electric chair, Jennie is faced with the quandary of testifying in his behalf and thus revealing her past, or remaining silent and sealing his death. Jennie chooses the former, but Kenneth forgives her and all ends happily.
- After he finds his wife Stella in the arms of ne'er-do-well Allan Standish, Ralph Gordon takes his daughter June out West, where he has extensive mining interests. The inhabitants of Hell's Gulch, who lately have been terrorized by "Rawhide" Pete and his gang of outlaws, elect Ralph sheriff. Standish, whose desertion of Stella has caused her death, arrives in Hell's Gulch and allies himself with Rawhide Pete, while competing with Ralph for the affections of June's governess, Sarah Malcomb. June assists in capturing Rawhide Pete, but Standish escapes and Sarah, moved by pity, agrees to conceal him. Assuming that Standish has again beaten him in love, Ralph catches a train East, but Sarah follows him and becomes June's new mother.
- On the South Sea island of Somona, an American rough-and-ready hero, Sylvester Todd, punches a German prince for insulting Lady Diana Loring of England. Sylvester flees the island, and at the request of an English official, sails to another province to help quell a native uprising. The German foreman of an English platinum mine on the island plans to destroy it with the assistance of the natives. When Lady Diana arrives, Sylvester takes her and several other English friends to a chateau for safety, but the building is surrounded by the rebels. Sylvester escapes to a wireless station and sends off an appeal for help. The party is rescued by an American warship, after which Sylvester and Diana marry.
- Spanish coquette Tula Moliana is encumbered with two husbands, one of whom is Senator Wakefield. Intent on divorcing him, Tula convinces Jim Blake, engaged to the senator's daughter, Helen, to be her co-respondent. Jim is soon entangled in a web of deceit as he struggles to make excuses for his many inappropriate encounters with Tula. When one of her admirers threatens Jim's life, the latter keeps the assailant at bay by inviting him to dinner, with frequent interruptions to attend to Helen. After disarming the man, Jim reconciles with Helen and Tula returns to the senator.
- When Mary Worthington will not sign a document absolving the executors of her late father's estate from the loss of money due to mismanagement, they lock her up to force her to comply. Meanwhile, Danny Abbott, a press agent for Mary's friend, Gloria Morning, and two East Side Jewish backers, worry that Gloria's failing musical, The Purple Pagoda , will ruin them. Danny persuades his friend Robert Garrison to kidnap Gloria and release her before showtime, thus creating a news item to attract ticket buyers. When Mary escapes and approaches Gloria's apartment, Garrison, thinking that she is Gloria, kidnaps her. Mary plays along to escape the executors and falls in love with him at his cabin where they fight off Gloria's would-be rescuers. After the executors find Mary and take her to an insane asylum, Garrison saves her, they marry, and Gloria's show becomes a success.
- Jack Melford, the prize hurdler at a small college, wins a big race and learns immediately afterward that his father is near death. He returns home to find his father dead and himself penniless, his father having left everything to Dr. Dehli, the foreign specialist who treated him. Jack later discovers that the same Dr. Dehli is caring for Julia Cunningham, the aunt of his orphaned sweetheart, Rae Davis. Jack eventually exposes the doctor as a charlatan, revealing Dehli's plans to hypnotize Rae's aunt and force her to disinherit the girl. Jack also rounds up the crooks who worked with Dehli, winning for himself the love of Rae and the gratitude of her aunt.
- John B. Smart, an American author in search of solitude and an atmosphere for a new story, purchases an old castle in Switzerland. Upon moving in, he discovers a beautiful woman hiding with a baby in the east tower. She tells him that she is Aline, the daughter of an American millionaire and the divorced wife of Count Tarnowsky, who has squandered her money and treated her brutally and to whom the courts have awarded their child. The count comes to the castle and confronts Smart, who thrashes him soundly and has him thrown into the dungeon. Smart then takes Aline and her child on a sleigh and speeds to the Italian border. The count escapes and pursues them, but they safely cross the border and Aline consents to be Smart's wife.
- The Riggs family, newly wealthy from Oklahoma oil, move to an estate in Ossining, New York, adjoining that of eligible bachelor Stephen Van Courtlandt, who wants to avoid marriage. Mrs. Riggs, anxious to break into society, wants her daughter Barbara to marry Stephen. While Stephen is fishing, an escaped convict from Sing Sing, Chimmy the Cricket, convinces him to exchange clothes so that he can escape the pursuing guards. Pursued, Stephen climbs into Barbara's bedroom window and Barbara, excited to be able to reform a criminal, gives Stephen her butler's clothes to wear. When Mrs. Riggs enters and Stephen explains who he is, she says that they must announce their engagement immediately to protect Barbara's reputation, which they do, although Barbara still believes that Stephen is a convict. After Stephen is suspected of stealing Mrs. Rigg's jewels, the Cricket helps Stephen expose the real thief, and Barbara and Stephen, who have fallen in love, prepare to marry.
- Lawyer George Howell leaves his bride Ottilie on their wedding day, having promised client Ned Pembroke that he would procure some old love letters from Vera Vernon, a chorus girl with whom Ned was formerly infatuated. George is detained for three days, and when he returns, Ottilie finds jewels and burglar's tools in her husband's suitcase which leads her to suspect that he is a thief. Susie, the maid, sees the jewels and decides to earn the reward for their return. In the meantime, King, the real thief, turns up with George's grip, the latter having taken his by mistake. Susie calls the police, who refuse to allow anyone to leave the house. King is detained along with everyone else, and after a series of misadventures, the real thief is apprehended, Ottilie is convinced of her husband's innocence, the letters are restored to Ned and all ends happily.
- After Henry Dawson and Robert Harwell quarrel at Elaine Huntington's garden party, Henry disappears and Robert is accused of murder. Although Robert is found guilty and sentenced to death, Elaine, who loves him, believes he is innocent and does everything in her power to help him. Robert did not kill Henry, but had merely wagered that he could get himself convicted of murder on circumstantial evidence. As the execution date approaches, Henry wires Robert that he is sailing for America, but en route, his steamer is torpedoed. Elaine asks Robert's supposed friend Richard Shields for papers outlining the wager, but because she refuses to marry him, he burns the documents. As Robert is being led to the electric chair, Henry appears, having been rescued from the U-boat attack, and Robert's life is spared.
- Hard working Jimmy Dodd, the main support for his widowed mother and three unwed, bickering sisters, promises his mother on her death bed that he will not marry before his sisters. When Jimmy and his fiancée Emily Harrison fail to find husbands for the sisters, Jimmy lets Emily go and she marries another. After many years of complaints, two of the sisters marry and the third goes to work at a settlement house. Because of the war, Jimmy's leather business becomes very profitable. When he is courting flashy young women, his sisters condemn him for being a "gay old dog," but Jimmy realizes that his romantic efforts are pitiful and unfulfilling. He is deeply moved when he sees Emily's boy going off to war in a parade. When his sisters reproach him again, he tells them to leave and not return, blaming them for the loss of Emily and the child that might have been his.
- Young playboy Robert Pitt makes a bet with friends at a restaurant that he will obtain within 24 hours a photograph of a girl across the room, whom he has never met, autographed fondly to him. His unsuccessful attempts to steal the photograph from her and win the bet make up the rest of the plot. Finally, he succeeds in getting the photograph and winning the girl, but he gets involved in an attempted jewel theft, which he prevents but for which he is blamed.
- Allen Spargo, a mining engineer betrothed to Theresa Kane, goes West to make his fortune and is seriously injured in an accident. Kate Leonard falls in love with him while nursing him to recovery. She jealously intercepts his fiancée's letters and writes Theresa that Allen is dead. Paralyzed by grief for a time, Theresa finally agrees to marry her former suitor, Lemuel Antree, but soon after the ceremony, Allen returns. Assuming that she no longer loves him, Allen leaves for the West, but Theresa follows him. Lemuel pursues the couple intending to kill them, but learns that Allen had once saved his life. Since Lemuel believes that his life, in effect, belongs to Allen, he drowns himself to allow the couple to marry.
- For 15 years, wealthy widow Marise Jaffrey has searched for her daughter Mary, who was taken away as an infant by her father and subsequently disappeared after he was killed in a train accident. Mary Healy, a stenographer who has helped in the search, learns that Mrs. Healy is not her real mother. At the same time, Mary's resemblance to the missing girl leads Mrs. Jaffrey to investigate further and discover that Mary is her daughter. Mary then goes to live in the Jaffrey home, but runs away because of the snobbish attitudes of Mrs. Jaffrey's friends. Henry Martin, a printer's foreman, tells Mrs. Jaffrey of his love for Mary. Mary's mother and foster mother reconcile themselves when they see Mary's happiness over her forthcoming marriage.
- Mrs. H. Jerome Browne, wife of a wealthy American, sends her daughter, Elizabeth, to a boarding school and goes to England to "find" a family tree, a title, and some heirlooms to go with them. Lady Dysart, widow of Lord Dysart, sells the heirlooms of the Dysart castle to obtain money to send her son, Cecil, to America so that he may marry well. Cecil and Elizabeth meet and are about to marry when Richard Jones, the real heir to the Dysart title masquerading as a journalist, intercepts the elopement and reveals Cecil, Lady Dysart's son from a former marriage, to be an impostor.
- Gilbert Thurstan, deputy inspector of the British Civil Service Commission in India, is warned by a physician that his wife, Emily, cannot remain in the hot climate where he is stationed, and he applies to his superior, Vincent Chalmers, for a transfer. Vincent is enamored with Emily and sends Gilbert to a post in Kajra, where the previous inspector died of fever. Emily goes to Simla at her husband's behest, with Vincent in pursuit. While he attempts to romance Emily, her ailing husband clashes with Hindu fanatics but manages to quell them single-handedly. Emily rejects Vincent, who is wracked with guilt over his treatment of Gilbert and travels to Kajra to relieve him of his appointment. Gilbert is reassigned to another city, where Emily happily awaits him.
- Toyama's wife Sada secretly earns money as a Geisha girl to finance his studies in America, but she says that the money comes from her deceased grandfather. In America, Toyama becomes an assistant to Dr. Stone, studying cures for inherited vices. When Toyama learns that Sada has been sentenced to death for murdering a prominent banker who attacked her, Toyama disappears and gives in to his hereditary tendency to drink until Dr. Stone cures him. Unknown to Toyama, Sada's sentence is commuted to life imprisonment when she gives birth to their daughter. Meanwhile, Toyama marries Stone's half-Japanese daughter Emily to fulfill Stone's dying request. In Japan, after Toyama lectures women prisoners and recognizes Sada, he discovers that the child he and Emily adopted is really his own daughter. When Sada escapes and finds Toyama, he decides to commit harakiri, but as the prison guards approach, Sada drowns herself to save him.
- Agatha Kent inherits a southern mansion from her maiden aunt, Agatha. When she advertises for boarders, Burton Forbes, who is blind and alone in the world, recalls his visits to Aunt Agatha as a boy and rents a room. Assuming the roles of her aunt and an Irish maid, young Agatha looks after her guest, who is distressed over a broken engagement. His gratitude for her kindness ripens into love, which she reciprocates, unaware that his sight has returned. A lucky turn on the stock market results in the restoration of Burton's fortune, and when his former fiancée asks to resume their engagement, he rejects her for Agatha.
- Meg Mackenzie, an orphan, lives with her two stingy bachelor uncles, Donald and Duncan Craig, in a narrow-minded rural community. They plan to marry her to Joe Dobbs, the blacksmith's son, but an author from the city, Stephen Ware, seeking a quiet place to work, arrives in the village and wins Meg's silent worship. The natives regard him with suspicion and accuse him of committing a robbery, and while the uncles are away, Meg saves him from an angry mob. Finding Meg with the injured man, the uncles consider her compromised and insist that he marry her; to save her from disgrace, he consents, telling her he will provide for her until he can have the marriage annulled. In the city, the unwanted bride determines to make herself desirable in the eyes of her husband, and he falls genuinely in love with her.
- When wealthy ne'er-do-well Jeffrey Downs becomes raucously drunk at a bachelor party marking his engagement to Lorella Cavendore, he buys the animals in a vaudeville act and takes them home. When he awakens the next morning, Jeffrey is astonished to find the animals, especially a performing horse named White Star, in his room. Jeffrey's family, eager for him to settle down, have ordered him to get married or be disinherited, but Lorella's mother, society matron Mrs. Henrietta Cavendore, is shocked after reading the news accounts of the wild party and determines that Lorella must break the engagement. That same morning, Boris Pizaza, who owns the vaudeville act, arrives at the house with his daughter Nell because Jeffrey had proposed to her the night before. Nell realizes that Jeffrey did not really mean to propose and is willing to give back the money he paid for the animals, but just then Lorella and her mother arrive. Although Jeffrey tries to sequester Nell, her father and the animals in a closet, they fall out and Mrs. Cavendore insists on breaking the engagement. Jeffrey's predicament is further complicated by the arrival or his father Jim and grandfather Jim. After another wild party that afternoon, Grandfather Jim tells Jeffrey that he must decide between his family and keeping the animals. Jeffrey selects the animals and is then disinherited. Sometime later, after Jeffrey has joined the vaudeville act, Nell is lured to a bungalow owned by Karl Kenton, the cad who had arranged Jeffrey's disastrous parties. Pretending to poison herself rather than submit, she escapes, after which Jeffrey, who has fallen in love with her, goes to Karl's and fights with him. Following a series of escapades, and with the aid of his valet, Lewis, and White Star, Jeffrey finally reconciles with his family and marries Nell.
- Orphan Mary Lord, the ward of Sir Arthur Stanhope of Parliament, is attracted to Philip Carmichael, a young politician, who ignores her and goes through a supposedly mock marriage at a wild party with actress Sheelah Delayne. Years later, Philip falls in love with Mary, now married to Sir Arthur, who dies from a stroke when he sees Philip and Mary together. Remorseful, they try to keep apart but eventually marry in France. Later, Sheelah confronts Philip with their son and proof that they are married. When Philip is arrested for bigamy, Mary testifies, to her humiliation, that she and Philip are not married, and then disappears. After her son dies, Sheelah goes to France as a canteen worker and finds Mary wandering in a daze. Feeling pity, Sheelah has her marriage annulled and sends for Philip. When Mary hears soldiers sing a song she used to sing to Philip, she recognizes Philip and they resume their marriage.
- A young Japanese woman named Yuki runs away and becomes a geisha girl in order to escape marriage to the lecherous Baron Nekko. Her brother's American friend, John Bigelow, falls in love with Yuki and marries her, but Ido, the marriage broker, who will lose a large commission if the wedding of Yuki and the baron is canceled, breaks into the American consulate, murders the consul, and steals the marriage certificate. When Yuki's brother arrives home from America, he is informed that she and John are living together unlawfully. To save her husband from her brother's vengeance, Yuki resolves to marry Baron Nekko, but Ido, having been mistreated by the baron, finally admits his guilt and returns the marriage certificate.
- Although she finds the stiff Bostonian manners of her fiancé, Robert Ames, unsuited to her temperament, artist-illustrator Sheila Athlone refuses to illustrate an author's story because of its "absurd" premise that a girl would kiss a man she met only 4 hours earlier. Author Brian Moore, setting out to prove his point, poses as a butcher boy and induces her to ride out to a country orchard. His advances are refused until he saves a child from an explosion, and 2 minutes before the time limit, in admiration of his bravery, she allows him to kiss her.
- After Barbara Martin, a naïve young convent girl, elopes with her guardian's degenerate brother, Barton Sedgewick, she discovers that Barton already has a wife and child. Barton then deserts both wives, leaving Barbara to turn to her guardian George Sedgewick for advice. George advises an immediate divorce, but Barbara takes no action until she meets John Brent and falls in love. Upon requesting that George arrange her divorce from Barton, Barbara discovers that Brent is her guardian's lawyer. Panicked for fear of Brent discovering her marriage, Barbara's quandary is resolved when she discovers Barton in his partner Rhodes' apartment. Through Barton's carelessness, Barbara is able to obtain documents which prove that his first marriage was valid, thereby nullifying their marriage and freeing her to marry Brent.
- Bright young novelist Mabel Vere is engaged to Gerald Wantage, a prig who angrily objects when she advertises for a husband in order to elicit ideas for her new book. Mabel's roommate, Maud Bray, a physical culture expert, frightens away the less desirable suitors, while the writer responds to the more interesting letters, and soon becomes embroiled in a number of adventures. One of her applicants is a butler, whose employer, Noel Corcoran, also has answered the ad. Noel informs Mabel that Gerald has bet the other members of his club that she will answer no more letters. Angered, she responds to several particularly lurid ones, after which she and Gerald break off their engagement. Having fallen in love with Mabel, Noel proposes and is accepted.
- Paul Potter, the captain of the Yale football team, becomes engaged to Sylvia Castle after promising her father that they will live in their hometown in Indiana. When Sylvia visits Yale for the senior prom, however, and sees that Paul is embarrassed by her small town manner and dress, and is attracted to Muriel Evers, a married society woman, she releases him from his promise. She then returns to Indiana while Paul advances to Wall Street. After Sylvia's father dies, she works and meets an alcoholic actor, Henry Leamington, who encourages her to become an actress while she helps him conquer his affliction. In New York, after Sylvia becomes well-known, she meets Paul, unhappily married to Muriel, and they realize that they still love each other. After Muriel dies in an automobile accident, Paul, thinking an actress wife would harm his business reputation, proposes that Sylvia become his mistress. Sylvia, now convinced of Paul's character, marries Henry.
- Craig Norton, a young well-to-do rancher, returns from a holiday in the city to clear his foreman and friend of the charge of cattle rustling and is himself implicated and pursued by the sheriff's posse. His friend also suspects Craig of double-crossing him with Polly, his sweetheart. A heroic rescue of the friend and Polly by Craig gains him the love of the girl and the forgiveness of the friend, who now realizes his own shortcomings.
- Clay Norton and Duke Fuller are partners in a mining venture and have several claims, none of which have proved particularly successfully but do have promise. They are both in love with Agnes, and Clay wins her hand. While he is away in a nearby town to buy a wedding ring, Jim Butts, who has the territory's best mine, dies and Duke jumps his claim and sells it for $10,000, and the widow Butts is left penniless. When Clay, on his return, finds out what Duke has done, he demands his partnership share of $5,000 and tells Duke that they should see the widow and give her the money to go East so she will cause them no trouble. They visit her together and Clay tells her he will give her $5,000 and forces Duke to do the same. Overcome with the shock of the good fortune, the widow faints, and Duke, furious at being tricked, rushes from the cabin and meets Agnes, who is on her way to meet Clay. He takes her to the door of the cabin where she sees the widow Butts in the arms of her sweetheart. Misunderstanding the situation and being told by Duke that Clay is unfaithful to her, she breaks off their engagement.
- Wealthy Bruce MacAllister is goaded by his fiancée, Helen Sumner, into proving that he is a man of action rather than a pampered youth. After telling his estate administrator, Eugene Preston, that he is going east for a meeting, Bruce dons a disguise and infiltrates the San Francisco, CA, underworld. Bruce is mistaken for master criminal "The Chicago Kid" and finds himself leading the gang in a robbery of his own fortune in diamonds. When he discovers Eugene's intention to steal the jewels for himself, the loot changes hands many times. Helen summons the police, the criminals are arrested, and Bruce wins her respect.
- On a treasure hunt in the tropics, adventurer Mortimer Gregg discovers beautiful Horse Island, and upon his return to New York, forms a partnership with Christopher Beaumont, allegedly to develop the island's resources. Just before his death, however, Gregg reveals to his assistant manager, David Smith, that the Tropical Products Company was formed for the sole purpose of swindling the stockholders. A highly principled man who believes in the island's potential, David refuses to tamper with the company's financial reports, which so angers Beaumont that he visits Horse Island to deliver David an ultimatum. When the young man learns that he is about to be fired for his persistent honesty, he refuses to allow Beaumont and his daughter Christabel to leave the island. Caught in a tropical storm one afternoon, David and Christabel take refuge in a cave, where they fall in love and, incidentally, uncover a store of pirates' gold. After the Beaumonts have departed for New York, David invests the treasure in Tropical Products stock under Christabel's name, whereupon old Beaumont, finally beaten, agrees to run the company honestly as the partner of his future son-in-law.
- Philip Durban, a wealthy iron manufacturer, marries Claire Bowdoin, the young daughter of a family of impoverished blue-bloods. Claire, who enters into matrimony only to provide for her mother's welfare, remains at first coldly indifferent to Philip, and he, in turn, remains aloof. Claire eventually comes to love Philip, but he fails to respond to any of her advances. She eventually goes abroad, where she encounters Prince Novakian, an Italian, who becomes infatuated with her. Philip learns of Novakian's amorous advances and goes to Italy, where he is challenged to a duel for taking a punch at the prince. Philip is wounded in the duel, and Novakian is slain. Under the stress and excitement of the moment, Claire casts aside her pose of indifference and rushes to her husband, tending his wounds and at long last convincing him of her love.
- The story of a girl who rebelled against the "double standard" of morals, and demanded that women should have as much right to expect virtue in the man they are going to marry as a man expects of a woman. From original film advertisement, 'Cumberland Argus & Fruitgrowers Gazette', 4th January 1919.
- John Fenton visits a fortune-teller to gain insight into his parentage. While there, a police raid occurs, and he climbs the fire escape to the apartment above. There he finds a girl standing over the body of a young man who has just shot himself. The girl, Belle Charmion, explains that her half brother, Gordon Brewster, had stolen some jewels from their uncle and, fearing that the police would capture him, had attempted suicide. Fenton conceals the brother in another room and impersonates him when the police arrive. Later, he and Belle take Brewster to his uncle's home. In the excitement, the jewels have been forgotten, and Fenton returns to search for them. By this time, the family butler, who is a member of an underworld gang, has tipped off his friends, who then steal the Fenton jewels. At the butler's home, a scuffle ensues; Fenton recovers the jewels and learns that he is actually a distant relative of the Charmions, having been kidnapped in infancy by a crook. With both mysteries thus resolved, Belle and Fenton become engaged.
- On the verge of suicide because he has squandered his inherited fortune, Yale Durant goes to bid farewell to his fiancée Blanche Trevor. While in her home, he learns that her father George faces financial ruin unless Yale can raise a large sum of money within 24 hours. Taking a job in a brokerage house during a raid on the market, Yale obtains access to the stocks that could save Trevor. Borrowing the stocks, Yale places them on the market and lends the proceeds to Trevor. The sale of the stocks paints Yale as a thief, and crooked broker Jack Millington, in whose charge the securities had been placed, determines to apprehend Yale and consummate Trevor's ruin. Milligan's secretary Millie warns Yale, who determines to retrieve the stocks. A car race between Yale and Millington results in the return of the securities in due time. Meanwhile, Blanche has eloped with an old suitor, and Yale realizes that he has fallen in love with Minnie.
- The owner of a resort hotel promotes Tom Gwynne, a college boy working as a waiter, to manager. As a result of his mismanagement the hotel loses several thousand dollars. Tom inherits a million and buys the hotel to continue his experimental management, which is to give the employees time and opportunity for self-expression--to do what they like best to do. With the grounds full of acrobats, musicians, and dancers, the hotel goes bankrupt. The old manager returns, buys the hotel, but retains Tom--now that he has learned his lesson--as manager.
- The Earl of Dunhaven, who disinherited his son for marrying an American, tries, on his deathbed, to leave his estate to his nephew, the Honorable Guy Wyndham. To stop him, the Dunhaven solicitor, John Grahame, travels to America and finds the earl's grandson, Jim Dunn, a Wyoming cowpuncher. Because Jim wants a home for his motherless nephew Sam, they go to England with Grahame, taking papers which prove, because the earl has since died, that Jim is his legitimate heir. Jim's Western ways irritate his newly-found, chilly relatives. Finding himself more at home with the servants, he teaches them American customs and songs, thus shocking his aunt, Lady Caroline Croxton. After falling in love with Lady Croxton's secretary, Phyllis Barton, who warns him about a plot to rid him of his inheritance, Jim establishes his right, but tires of British life, and leaves for America with Phyllis and Sam, after renting the estate to his relatives.
- When her father's death leaves Virginia Hastins facing a life of poverty, she breaks her engagement to Robert Monti to marry millionaire James Vandam. Unaccustomed to wealth, she entertains lavishly and flirts with many men, although her husband's secretary Harry Torrence remains immune to her wiles. Using her old love letters, Monti attempts to blackmail Virginia, and when he attacks her, she throws the blame on Torrence, who is then discharged. As a result of the incident, Torrence loses his wife, child, and home and becomes a tramp. Later, upon seeing the wreck of a man that she ruined, Virginia dreams that she is Salome of the Bible; awakening full of remorse, she confesses the truth, and Torrence and his wife reconcile.Upon learning of his wife's plight, Vandam thrashes Monti, rehires Torrence, and forgives Virginia.