A peasant girl goes to great lengths to protect her child in 19th century Vienna. The film is considered lost, and only four minutes of footage are known to remain.
Laura Bell runs away from her country home to the city, where she becomes a clerk in a department store. Her brother, Frank, follows her to New York, but is unable to place her. He becomes interested in a settlement house and obtains a position in social service work. Mary Ashton, daughter of the proprietor of the store where Laura works, is shocked to find that her father pays his clerks starvation wages.
After political boss Tim Noland adopts Roy, the infant son of a dead crony, he reluctantly gives the boy up to a doctor who claims that, if raised in an respectable environment, the child will grow into a model citizen. Twenty years later, Roy comes back to live with Tim, and is appalled at his unscrupulous methods of conducting business. Then, he falls in love with Enid Winslow, the daughter of a social reformer who is running for office against Tim. Largely due to Roy's financial support, Winslow wins the election, but, holding a grudge against Tim and anyone connected to him, he refuses to let Enid marry Roy.
George Bell, a wild young man, lives with his rancher father, Thomas Bell, in Paradise Valley, California. When George sells his father's favorite horse, Mr. Bell turns him out, and George becomes a grain salesman in St. Louis. Meanwhile, Polly Martin lives with her father Bill, an ex-businessman who has sunk to day-labor because of his addiction to alcohol. Bill frequently abuses Polly, and when he falls to his death from a high girder, Polly becomes a nurse in the Salvation Army in St. Louis. George falls in love with Polly after he saves her from the advances of a drunk, but she will not marry him because of his wild past.
In a Southern town, Don Morley is apparently the sole witness to a gunfight during which his friend, Lee Dillingham, badly wounds Sheely. To avoid testifying against Lee, Don leaves town, but after he is gone, Lee double-crosses Don and blames him for the shooting. Then, Don's sweetheart, Miss Lady, heartbroken to learn that Don is a criminal, marries the elderly Professor Querrington. To take her mind off her mundane marriage, Miss Lady befriends a mute boy and pays for an operation that restores his speech. The professor dies, and soon after Don, unaware of his alleged guilt, returns to town to find himself charged with Lee's crime.
When penniless Westie Phillips briefly meets wealthy Martha Gorham, he falls in love, but Martha forgets the encounter. Harry Arnold, courting Martha, invites her out sailing and arranges to have the yacht wrecked near an uncharted island so that he can be alone with her until rescuers arrive. Meanwhile, without knowing Martha is on board, Westie secures a position on the yacht.
While working in China for Nathan Goldberg, a New York Jewish importer, Chattfield Bruce comes to admire the Robin Hood philosophy of Wong Lee, who gives to the poor all the food, clothing and money that he steals from the rich. After Chattfield informs Wong Lee of a betrayal among his gang, Wong Lee gives him a ring that is guaranteed to give the wearer the allegiance of any Chinese throughout the world.
At a mountain resort, Kenneth Scott falls in love with Marie Beauchamp, an older woman who merely amuses herself with him. When she deserts him to open a roadhouse, he sadly leaves the mountains and, in the company of an old wandering poet named "Doc" Podden, travels to a little village in the woods.
After Neila Pendleton's father dies, leaving his wife and daughter penniless, the avaricious Mrs. Pendleton decides to marry Neila to the highest bidder. At the cost of her daughter's reputation, Mrs. Pendleton accepts money from elderly broker Wilbur Simons, and later tries to force Neila into a marriage with a dissolute old millionaire named Hale Faxon.
When a wealthy hypochondriac is dissatisfied by the care of the town doctor (Doc Arnold), he consults with a new physician in town who swindles him out of a large sum of money. When his daughter tries to retrieve the check, the quack (Dr. Bell) turns up dead with a gun shot wound to the chest. Doc Arnold lends his expertise to the investigation and solves the case by finding microscopic evidence on the murder weapon left at the scene.
In this picture, Sessue Hayakawa is in a dual role, playing twin brothers. One of them, Yamashiro is serious and hardworking, while the other, Sadao, is a playboy. There is a girl, Toko-Ku, who loves them both, but really prefers the bad boy. Sadao encounters Paul Berkowitz in a gambling den and borrows far more money from him than he can ever pay back.
Only six months of marital bliss and Lillian Josselyn is filled with dread at the return of Pierre Marchand, her former lover, who left her to marry Ellen Latimer.
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
One of seven films dealing with The Seven Deadly Sins.
Roseanne (Ethel Clayton) has grown up near some diamond mines in South Africa. As a child, she became ill and a Malay nurse, Rachel Bangat (Fontaine La Rue) promised to cure her. That she did, but she also worked some voodoo on the child, who, as a grown up now displays a powerful desire for diamonds and the ability to throw evil curses on those who displease her.
Avis Langley's dying mother begs her to look after Avis's errant brother and continues after death to reappear in spirit form to remind Avis of her promise. Avis follows her brother to New Zealand in hopes of protecting him from his own ways, but on the trip tragedy apparently strikes.