A socially ambitious woman who convinces her father to borrow money from a snobbish man.
An attractive heiress, Carla (May McAvoy), and David (Ralph Graves), a successful artist, fall in love following an automobile accident. and are married. Their idyll is interrupted by a misunderstanding and she gets a Reno-quickie divorce. Years later a chance meeting brings them together.
Izzy Murphy is a street vendor of scents that falls in love with the beautiful woman (Audrey Ferris) whose picture adorns the perfume bottle he sells. After resourcefully tracing the beauty (whose father(Warner Oland) manufactures the perfume to a luxury yacht, he finds himself in the company of an escaped lunatic John Miljan) who has vowed to murder the perfume manufacturer in retaliation for all the flowers that have been lost in the making of the perfume.
Bernice Randall, who has forsaken the love of her sweetheart, Tom Richards, to marry for wealth, turns down Richards' proposal after the death of her husband, and she is denounced by him as a slave to silver. Lavishing the greater part of her fortune on her daughter, Janet, Bernice determines to give her the advantages she herself lacked. Despite her mother's disapproval, Janet scorns the affection of Larry Martin, a life-long friend, after meeting Philip Caldwell, a wealthy sophisticate. Worried over Janet's growing attachment to Philip, Bernice determines to win Caldwell from her daughter, and in a confrontation involving the girl and Richards, now a millionaire, Janet is disillusioned in her mother and Caldwell. Learning of her mother's sacrifice, Janet forgives her and finds happiness with Larry.
Dan Webber, a sailor in the U.S. Navy who has been away from home for many years and presumed dead, returns to his farm to find that his family is about to be evicted. Dan's sweetheart arrives with a baby who, unknown to Dan, is actually the child of his younger brother and the sweetheart's sister.
A woman finds herself being a unpaid skivvy to her husband, two daughters and her son.
An Egyptian Princess is infatuated with Karmet, a Syrian prince who is disguised as a merchant. He, however, loves Arvia, a dancer. The Princess plots to sacrifice Arvia to the sacred crocodiles. Arvia is saved by her father and united to Karmet. The princess weds Prince Tut, who afterwards becomes King of Egypt.
Clorinda Wildairs breaks off an affair with the unscrupulous Sir John Ozen to become engaged to a rich nobleman, Mertoun, the Duke of Osmonde. Clorinda accidentally kills Sir John when he, infuriated by her forthcoming marriage, threatens to blackmail her. She buries the body in the cellar and admits her act to the forgiving Osmonde before marrying him.
Mark is the captain of a whaling ship and he looks down on brother Joel, who has never gone to sea. But when Mark's ship arrives in port sans its captain, Joel takes over the command. His new bride, Priscilla, insists on coming along and they head for the South Seas, where Mark was last seen.
Jerry Chandler falls for the lovely Mimi Le Brun and she with him. He proposes marriage but Mimi wants money and security which he cannot provide so she becomes engaged to a wealthy man whom she does not love. When Jerry’s uncle dies leaving him a ranch and what is said to be a castle Mimi changes her tune and the pair elope. Disillusionment comes though when they see the shack that was called a castle, but Mimi accepts the situation until the rejected wealthy man appears on the scene. Conflicts arise until an accident befalls Jerry and Mimi realizes her true feelings.
Tale of a young bugler whose stepmother attempts to supplant the mother who only lives in his memory.
Alick Wylie agrees to give railroad porter John Shand $300 to help him secure his education and political ambitions on condition that his daughter Maggie has the option of marrying him within five years. Though not in love they marry, and John becomes successful, thanks to Maggie’s input on his speeches, in time being elected to Parliament. Eventually John strays with Lady Sybil and Maggie diplomatically arranges for them to be together. However his next speech without her assistance is a failure and Sybil leaves him out of boredom, it’s then he sees Maggie’s true worth.
Lewis Dumont, a Northern officer in the American Civil War, works undercover behind Confederate lines in an attempt to lead Southern forces away from an area in which a Northern attack is planned. But Dumont falls in love with a Southern girl and when she proves useful to his plan, his conscience begins to tear at him.
Based on the 1907 play 'Lady Frederick' by W. Somerset Maugham, this tells the story of Betsy O'Hara in her pursuit of romance and love.
Young Martha Redmond, a poor girl from a small town, leaves to find a singing career in New York City. She doesn't find success as a singer, but finds a job as a model for a prominent artist, and soon becomes his mistress. When her lover throws her over to marry the daughter of a wealthy man, she becomes a "fallen women", a plaything for wealthy playboys. She meets Barrett, a millionaire's son, and begins to wonder if she might have a future with him, but it seems like he'll turn out to be just like "all the others".
Imprisoned at the French garrison on the Isle of St. Noir for putting to death a patient suffering from an incurable illness, Dr. Paul La Roche escapes to the mainland, where he meets Dr. Henry Fontaine, his boyhood friend, and Fontaine's beautiful sister, Yvonne. As Fontaine is going blind, La Roche performs several operations for him, attracting the attention of Dr. Renaud, in Algiers, who offers him a position. La Roche, practicing as Fontaine, reveals his love for Yvonne during an excursion to a Bedouin camp. Then, Lieutenant Destin, from the prison, arrives and threatens La Roche with exposure unless he surrenders the hand of Yvonne.
Gerrit Ammidon, despairing of any chance to marry his love, Nettie Vollar, because of a bitter feud between his father and her grandfather, sails to China to "get away from it all". While in Shanghai he rescues a beautiful young woman being attacked by a gang of street toughs. She turns out to be Taou Yuen, a Manchu princess. Gerrit discovers that, unless she finds a husband, she will be put to death, and he agrees to marry her. They return to Java Head, the Ammidon family home in Salem, Massachusetts, but Gerrit's "homecoming" has some unexpected consequences.
Victor, an adventurous young swashbuckler in 19th-century New Orleans, takes possession of a barber shop as the result of winning a duel, and decides to settle down to a life as a barber. He meets a beautiful young woman and pursues her, but she dismisses his attentions because she thinks he is just a barber. Also pursuing the woman is the evil Capt. Remy, whom she also brushes off. He, however, doesn't take rejection so lightly, and forges papers "proving" that the girl is a "quadroon"--part black, which means that she can be sold as a slave. She is sold to Capt. Remy, and when Victor hears of it, he determines to rescue her.
John Stoval, a guard in a New York subway, thinks that Philip Hurd, who owns a concession at Coney Island, would make a good husband for his daughter Sophie. Sophie, however, has her sights set on Bill Hedges, the son of a wealthy farmer in upstate New York. Her father arranges for her to marry Hurd in exchange for a 25% interest in the concession, but matters come to a halt when John slips and falls off a subway platform and is injured.
An expose of the methods used by a police-department to extract a confession from a suspect, regardless of innocence or guilt, and the effect and consequences on a family when an innocent member breaks under the interrogation methods and confesses to a crime he did not commit.