Stan and Ollie are salesmen attempting to sell a washing machine; they fail constantly after several near misses. One would-be sale has them carrying the machine up a large flight of steps, only to find out that a young lady wants them to post a letter for her. The boys later get into an argument knocking off each other's hats, which eventually involves scores of others. A police van eventually carts all those involved away except Stan and Ollie, who afterwards try to find their own headgear amongst the hundreds of others lying on the street.

In this silent film, now considered lost, Doug Caswell falls for Irene, his wealthy father's mistress. It's up to Doug's stepmother Helen to put things right.

The story of two feuding Irish immigrant families living in a tenement.

A butler goes on vacation, where he is wrongly taken to be a wealthy man.

Upon hearing that his daughter Elizabeth, is coming from America to visit him in Paris, wealthy Willoughby Quimby, decides to give up dry martinis and women. However, Elizabeth seeks a wild time and ends up leaving France with her father's drinking buddy, Freddie, and Willoughby goes back to his dry martinis.

Three Broadway chorus girls seek rich husbands.

A butler impersonates his tippler boss and falls for a beautiful young maid. However, a notorious gold-digger, who thinks the butler is the wealthy young man he's impersonating, sets her sights on him.

In this farce, Mavis Jerome, is an actress who has just broken up with her fiancé, Homer Owen. She goes to her brother-in-law's island retreat, but her stay is interrupted by one of his pals, John Jordan. Her rest is further disturbed when Owen shows up on her doorstep during a storm.

Young Polly-Ann works in a small town inn as a maidservant. A troupe of actors comes to town and the innocent girl falls in love with one of its members. Howard Straightlane is sent to the small town by his father, to work as a schoolteacher in hopes of smartening up the young man from his wild ways. Howard soon meets Polly-Ann and saves her from the unscrupulous actor.

Caroline Rogers, a spirited young girl with a taste for highly romantic novels, comes home from boarding school to attend her sister Ethel's wedding. Having read a particularly lurid novel entitled Twin Souls recently, she arrives at the rehearsal wearing a daring gown in the hope of ensnaring a "soul mate." Because of his poetic name, Caroline becomes involved with Reginald Van Alden, a married fortune-seeker. On the morning of the wedding, she abandons her old sweetheart, Bob Worth, to take a ride with Reginald, but when he takes her to a disreputable roadhouse, she escapes and then tries to commit suicide by drinking cologne.

Young Celeste Janvier ( Bessie Love ) lives in an East Side tenement with her immigrant grandfather, a humanitarian and socialist. Like her kindly grandfather, Celeste also has a kindhearted soul, and her friendly nature has earned her the nickname, " the little sister of everybody."

The Dawn of Understanding is a lost 1918 American silent Western comedy film produced by The Vitagraph Company of America and directed by David Smith. It stars Bessie Love in the first film of her nine-film contract with Vitagraph.

Helen Steele, who has theatrical aspirations, has been told by Sidney Parker that, owing to her lack of stage experience he cannot entertain her proposition of giving her the leading part in his new production, "The Siren." Believing that she can get Parker to consent if she is persuasive enough, Helen has her fiancé, Henry Tracey, invite the theatrical manager to the party to be given by John W. Cannell so that she may work upon him. At the affair Helen manages to obtain Parker's consent to give her a trial it she is successful in having Jack Craigen, a friend of Cannell, who has been living in Patagonia for a long time and who is a woman hater, propose to her.

After her father's death, little Briar Rose is taken in by the men at a lumber camp. The girl shows a definite preference for one of the lumberjacks, "Hell-to-Pay" Austin, so he becomes her new "father." Just as much as Hell-to-Pay takes care of Briar, she watches over him, and it is largely through her influence that he gives up hard drinking and needless fighting. Then, when Briar is old enough, she goes away to school and quickly falls in with the wrong crowd. Hell-to-Pay comes after her and takes her away from Doris Valentine, an adventuress who had been teaching Briar the tricks of the trade. When they are reunited, Hell-to-Pay and Briar realize that they are in love, so they decide to change their relationship from guardian and ward to husband and wife.

"Waffles," the waitress at "Coffee Dan's" hash-house, is selected by Bert Gallagher and Clara Johnstone, a pair of crooks, to be represented as a missing heiress whose story they have read about in the papers. "Waffles" herself believes the story, as she was orphaned early and remembers little of her childhood, and by adroit coaching is able to convince the estate's none too bright lawyers of the validity of her claim. With this unlimited money, poor little "Waffles" nevertheless has only three desires: to buy the little restaurant for her old benefactor, Shorty Olson, to publish the music written by her lover, Carl Miller, a young, eccentric, absent-minded musical genius, and to adopt the baby that a Mrs. O'Shaughnessy is too poor to care for.

Brutal rental agent Joseph McGuire demands that Molly-O marry McGuire's son Denny, lest her family be thrown out of their humble shack. But Molly-O prefers the company of carriage driver Larry O'Dea, who unfortunately is just as broke as she is. Or is he?

Peggy ( Bessie Love ) and her sister Frances ( Myrtle Reeves ) live with their father, but because of his idleness, they must all move to humbler quarters. Peggy adapts quickly to their new surrounding, while Frances misses the social life she once enjoyed. Their neighbors are well off, and Peggy begins a romance with their son, whom she thinks is the chauffeur. Meanwhile, Frances has become involved with a roguish character and plans to elope with him. Peggy saves her sister from imminent disgrace, but comes close to compromising herself instead. Peggy's sweetheart comes to her rescue and now his true identity is revealed to the very grateful girl.