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Abandoned by her maidservant in an isolated country house, a mother must protect herself and her baby from an invading tramp while her husband races home in a stolen car to save them.

Eleanor, who earns her living working with her mother as a laundress, is courted by a bad man who will try to induct her into crime. Surprising finale. One of the few Cleo Madison surviving films.

Adeline falls in love with Frank, but her brother Theron wants her to marry rich Old Scapin, though she is carrying Frank's baby.

At a big automobile race one of the winning drivers, Tony Jeanette, is given an invitation to a masked ball to take place that evening at the home of the wealthy Mrs. Montague. In haste, he drops the invitation, which is found by F.J. Francis, a society crook, and also read by Meg, another gentile crook. Knowing of the wonderful necklace of Mrs. Montague, they both decide to attend the ball in an effort to steal same, unknown to each other. At the ball Meg is seen masked, watching every chance to get the necklace, but Francis is more clever and gets away with it. The diamond is missed. Two society detectives at the ball follow Francis' cab, which he jumps out of while going at high speed, leaving his cane inside the cab. Meg follows Francis unknown to anyone, and succeeds in getting into his apartments. Francis discovers her and shows her the diamonds, which she tries to get. After she has gone, he misses his watch, which she has cleverly taken to yet even. In the meantime the detectives have gotten up with Francis' cab and discover it is empty, but find his cane with his monogram (F.J.H.) on. They find the jeweler who made the cane, and find from him the club to which Francis belongs. Going there they discover Francis, but are not sure of him, as they only saw him at the ball and he was masked. They ask for a light and cigarette, and see the same monogram on his ring and cigarette case, and arrest him as the thief. Meg hears of his arrest and attends his trial, when he is pronounced guilty. Going to his cell, she offers to help him if she can. He tells her where he has bidden them, and she goes to his apartment, gets the jewels from their hiding place in the wastebasket, and stealing into Mrs. Montague's boudoir, places the jewels where she finds them later, and phones the police of their discovery. Francis is released. He and Meg marry and give up all of their ill-gotten gain to the society of the orphans. The last scene shows them looking at the bank balance of $10.00, but happy in their love and promise of a better life.

Isaac and his faithful wife Rachel deplore that in America their children are forced to work on the Jewish Sabbath. Leah and Sam are not so strict as their parents and the old customs pall about their more American spirits. Sam is employed in a cloak house and secretly loves his employer's daughter, but she refuses to recognize him. Leah is loved by the handsome gentile floorwalker, and despite her father's objections, she marries him. Isaac orders Leah from the house. Later, the daughter of the cloak manufacturer marries an admirer and Sam is invited to the wedding. He drinks and disgraces himself; returning home, is turned out by the heartbroken rabbi. He leaves, telling the old man that he will return when the father celebrates the Christian Christmas. Two years pass. Leah presents herself at her father's door with a baby in her arms. The old Jew refuses to see, but the mother longs to take the girl to her bosom. Julian falls under a street car; his legs are severed at the knees. Leah visits him at the hospital and is grief-stricken. Ten years later the rabbi and his wife are in poor circumstances, though he is as rigid as ever. Leah and Julian have adopted flower-making as a means of livelihood. Without knowing, the family have taken rooms above those of the rabbi. One afternoon their little girl meets the old man in the yard and assists him. An attachment springs up between the child and the old man, and the latter is impressed many times by instances of the kindness of the gentiles towards the Jews in this country. It is this child, on a Christmas night, that finally brings about reconciliation between the girl and the old father.

Old Ben Morrison and his daughter, Jen, an unsophisticated girl, live on an island not far from the mainland. Jasper Crane, middle-aged sensualist of the rougher type, bargains with Jen's father, in hopes of marrying and gaining possession of the girl. Morrison is willing, and explains that she is like her mother, who deserted her home and baby for a city man. Jen, hearing of her father's plan, makes her escape by swimming to the mainland, where she seeks protection from Mrs. Hilton and her daughter, Dorothy, members of a camping party. James Hilton, Dorothy's brother, falls in love with Jen. Kent, a refined sensualist of the party, covets the girl, but finds his plans checked at each turn by James. Knowledge of James' affection for Jen reaches his mother's ears, and she informs her daughter that things are going too far and the strange girl must go. Jen overhears the conversation between Mrs. Hilton and her daughter, and realizes that she is not wanted. Kent, noticing the girl's discomfiture, gives her a sum of money for expense and advises her to call at his office in the city, should she ever want for anything. Alice, Jen's mother, served for a time as the plaything of John Newton, the man with whom she ran away, but when he tired of her she drifted into a vulgar blasé set. Jen unable to secure work in the city, writes to Kent for aid. Kent is engaged to marry Dorothy Hilton and plans to celebrate the closing days of bachelorhood on board his palatial yacht. John Newton, who is just returning from an extended European trip, is also to be in the party. Kent and his cronies plan a surprise for Newton. Knowing his former relations with Alice Morison, they plan to have her as one of the party. At the party Alice is discovered by Newton and strange emotions surge in the breasts of the pair. At the height of the party Kent receives Jen's letter asking for aid and he plans to add to the zest of the party by showing them an unsophisticated girl. He accordingly sends for Jen. She arrives, and Alice recognizes her daughter, although she cannot reveal her true identity her child. Back in the offices of Kent and Hilton, who are partners, news comes of a financial crisis, and James Hilton leaves hurriedly to communicate with his partner aboard the yacht. When he finally arrives he is shocked to see Jen, plainly embarrassed, in the midst of the mad riot aboard the yacht. He takes her from the place, and Newton, seeing what Alice is undergoing, suffers a change of heart. He asks her for a chance to atone for the past, and begs her to lead a life worthy her of daughter, he to supply the means. Kent drops out of the party suddenly and hurries to the mainland. On the deck of the yacht alone, James and Jen plight their love anew. Alice, the result of her past sin apparent, sinks down overcome, while Newton endeavors to quiet her tumultuous emotions, realizing his own part in the tragedy so narrowly averted.

Phil was hard; he separated from his wife when suspicion fell upon her and took his baby girl with him. Phil took a house in another town that he might not meet his wife and be forced to remembrance of the woman he still loved. Lois was a woman and a mother and her heart yearned for her child. She wrote Phil a letter telling him that she intended taking steps to see her child in spite of his precautions to the contrary. Phil refused to consider the letter, but instructed the housekeeper never to allow the child out her sight. Shortly afterward, the appearance of a veiled woman aroused the curiosity of the women of the neighborhood, but she conducted herself modestly and gossip died out. One day Phil's child wandered up the street and as she toddled along she heard her name called. She recognized the voice and ran into her mother's arms. Shortly after, Lois sent the child back home. That night, when Phil returned home, he left the front door open. Later that night, the child decided to return to her mother and in the darkness she groped down the dark stairs and out of the front door. Lois was interrupted in her bitter meditations by a gentle knock at the door. She opened the door and it was her baby girl. All the bitterness fled and she took the child in her arms and wept. Phil found her there with their child in her arms, weeping and his eyes dimmed and he forgot all past disagreements. After that there was no further use for the housekeeper.

A journalist is reluctant to ruin a woman's reputation for the sake of a juicy story.

Giovanni Bartholdi ( Lon Chaney ), in desperate need of money, arranges to sell Carlotta ( Pauline Bush ), to supposed white slavers. Tony ( William C. Dowlan ), a friend, and her father come to her rescue and Carlotta is happily reunited with her family.

William Hartridge calls on his friend Jack Storm, and finds him proceeding to get drunk. Storm tells the story of how he loved the girl and won her love; how their troth was plighted; how her father went down in the crash in Wall Street; how a wealthy broker, in love with the girl, alone could save him. The father went to the girl, and told her she alone could save the family honor by marrying the broker. She promised her father that she would carry out his wish and marry the broker. Hartridge heard the story and told him to come to the club and forget his grief. He did so but with no success. He left the club. A few hours later his friends learned that the broker had been killed and that Storm had been found bending over his dead body with a revolver in his hand. He had walked to the girl's house, and had stood on the other side of the street looking across at the windows. He had heard a shot, had run toward the man who fell, saw it was the broker and the assassin escaping, he lifted up the body, picked up the revolver and had thus been found by the police. Everything pointed to his guilt. He was tried and condemned. Just as the judge was about to read the sentence, a letter is handed to him. "He stole my wife and I followed him, found him, shot him. My task is done, and I am through with the world." By a greater jury than the twelve who judged only as weak man can judge, Jack Storm is acquitted.

The town ridiculed and reviled him. There might have been a few who pitied him. A few others hated him. None loved and very few tolerated him. They considered him shiftless, careless, hopeless. And his wife; she was one of those very rigid, very pious and righteous personages. There was something lacking in her composition, that something that alone makes the world worth living in. She made the villagers' opinion regarding her husband unanimous. The prophet, you'll know why we call him that a little later, went his way in peace and patience. Meek and reserved in the presence of his wife and town-folks, he would undergo a complete metamorphosis once he left the house and the vicinity. Eyes gleaming with the glory of a great light, shoulders straight with the pride of a vast conquest, his heart beating high with the happy hopes of those who associate with things beyond the earth, he would walk along the road, playing his flute and talking to the cosmos, yes, and hearing the thin, far-away reply. He was an ambling, rambling prophet. That same gentleness with which he reproached the country boy for swearing at the innocent gate because it would not open, the humble force with which he taught two quarreling sweethearts to smile, the patient firmness with which he exhorted to man who was to elope with another's wife to leave her in her own home with her own happiness, that sweet spirit of human love and tenderness, too spiritual to be recognized in its real value and volume by his foolish neighbors, directed and designed his every act and motive. And one day a minister of a neighboring parish heard one of his impromptu sermons and asked him to address the congregation at a revival meeting. The sincerity and integrity of his appeal, the genuineness and gentleness of his plea, sank into the hearts of the listeners and whispered solace to their souls. The meeting was a success and the minister wrote to the minister of the prophet's home parish, and recommended that he hold a revival meeting, to be addressed by the same eloquent exhorter. When the people assembled in the little church saw their shiftless neighbor mount the pulpit they were dumbfounded and horror-stricken. When they heard the words of truth and the tender voice, passionate with the hunger of right, when they looked into the eyes searching theirs, lighted with a divine glow of sympathy and understanding, when they felt the mystic note of common joy and common grief that his voice betrayed, they purged their hearts of the error they had permitted to dwell there, and they took him and his teachings to themselves.

Juan, a rich ranchman, loves Carita, the daughter of a neighboring farmer. After courting her for some time she comes to love him. Betty, in whose veins flow none of the hot Spanish blood, is something of an adventuress and she concludes that she will marry Juan for his money. While she is planning to charm him, she likewise falls in love with him. Betty now begins the intrigue to the end of breaking up the match between Juan and Carita. Carlos, Juan's foreman, is in love with Betty and he proves a willing tool in her hands. Carlos hires a Mexican to hide himself in Carita's room that night with full instructions in what manner to proceed. At midnight Carlos leads Juan to a position from which Carita's window is in plain view. Juan sees the figure of a man emerge from his sweetheart's bedroom. Juan informs Carita the following day that he no longer desires to marry her. Her pride outraged, she leaves Juan forever. And Betty. Juan meets her once again and scorns her as if she were a viper.

Far from the maddened throngs of the city, far from the teeming, seething city streets, in a little fishing town, lives Tess and her half-witted brother, Sam. By clam digging they earn a simple living, but life is sweet in spite of its simplicity. Right near their hut lived a young fisherman, handsome, brave, and bold, who sympathized with the girl because she had to support her semi-demented brother, who took an interest in her, a friendly interest, and no more. But the maid, in the manner of woman misconstrues his attitude and takes his friendly interest and concern for the divine spark. So she learns to love him as a woman can only love once in her life, and he is ignorant of the romantic relations she has assumed this simple friendship to be. Often human hearts suffer, and this time the warm, young heart of Tess is to feel the pang and anguish of a love in vain, for there comes to the fishing bank a city girl, accompanied by her mother and father. They meet the young fisherman and the girl is impressed by his clean-cut form, his robust health, his winning ways. She asks him to take her about the place, which he obligingly consents to do, and as they are laughing, talking and smiling, Tess follows them. Once, to avoid detection, she slipped into the icehouse, leaving the door open, intending to stay there until the two got out of sight. But Jed, seeing the door open, closes it, locking it after him. When Tess realizes her predicament, she shouts, but her calls bring no response. However, her half-witted brother, with the intuition that is a gift of all mentally effected, feels a presentiment of danger to his sister, whom he idolizes, and going to look for her, hears her cries, and going to the icehouse makes a vain effort to unfasten the door. At last he runs to the beach, where some fishermen are talking, and tells them of his sister's dilemma, and they, thinking it merely some of the boy's wild talk, refuses to assist him. Then Jed, coming ashore, hears the story and goes with Sam to see how much truth there is in it. He opens the door, and into his arms falls the unconscious form of Tess, resting at last in the arms of him whom the god of hearts had destined for the task.

A magic spell has turned a handsome prince into a hideous and repulsive beast, and only the love of a beautiful woman can change him back. ]

Lois loved Phil, and Phil worshiped Lois. It seemed as though they had loved as long as they had lived, and would love until the final interruption. There was another chap named Tooker. He probably loved himself more, but he liked Lois a little, too, a little too much for Lois' comfort. There was a rustic bench beneath an ancient tree in the near distance. There, of a moonlit night, Lois and Phil would whisper the old story. Tooker had watched them, and when Phil went, he approached Lois and attempted to kiss her. In her anxious helplessness, she dropped the flower that Phil had brought her, and turning, fled. Tooker saw the flower, and his opportunity. A little later he entered the tavern where Phil and a few companions were chatting and laughing. Proudly he waved the dying flower, and spoke wild words of her infidelity. Just after Phil struck him, the duel was arranged. Fassett, in love with Cleo, Lois' sister, ran back and breathlessly explained what had happened. In desperate grief, Lois snatched her scarf, told him to run and give it to her love, and tell him if he lived to wave the scarf, ride back to her at the trysting place. Tooker was a coward, as every man who lies about a woman is, and in craven fear he ran from the field of honor, where such as he have no place, mounted his horse and rode off in frenzied fright and flight. Lois, waiting in trembling anxiety, saw the wild rider, and her tortured thoughts at once conveyed to her the grim supposition of her lover's death; the last terrible grief that she was ever to know ate into her life and youth; the broken heart stopped, and the startled soul fled. And there Phil found her, murdered by the power of thought; a martyr to cruel imagination.

A fishwife tells her young daughter a fairy story about a princess imprisoned by a hunchback in a seashell, a story that parallels her own life.

A soldier finds strength after being given a rosary at the hospital where he was treated.

Eve makes a poor living selling flowers. She pleads with her old nurse, Matilde, with whom she lives, to allow her to enter cafés saying she would have no trouble to dispose of her flowers there. Matilde realizes the time has come to tell Eve of her mother's fate. Her mother, a singer, had married the only son of a wealthy man. This son was disinherited for connecting the family with a stage performer. Time went by and the pair drifted from bad to worse; Bentley after using up all his wife's money and jewels, deserted her on the night Eve was born. Matilde was maid to the mother and when she died it fell to her lot to care for Eve. When the old nurse finishes the story she dozes off, still dreaming of the past. Eve, desperate by lack of food and her nurse's weak condition, decides to disobey. Taking her flowers, she steals out to seek the bright lights. A crowd of young revelers, among them Victor Austin, are attracted to the pretty flower girl as they enter the café. They buy all her stock. Austin leaves his friends and steals back to Eve as she stands dazed by her good luck He makes advances to her and she frees herself, running to shelter in the tenements. She finally steals back into her own lodging only to find the old nurse dead. Eve is grief-stricken, but soon recovers. In on old trunk she finds some letters which give her an inkling as to where her father's relations can be found. She starts out to locate them and to demand her rights. At a junction where she has stopped to change cars, she is robbed of her train ticket and what little money she has. A theatrical company offers her sympathy and protection until they reach Utica, the town for which she was bound. She is offered a small part to play and she makes good. The star of this company, James Gordon, although married, cannot resist the charm of Eve. On reaching Utica and learning that her father has inherited the Bentley fortune, but is away on a hunting trip, Eve pleads to remain with the company. Gordon gladly consents. Shortly after comes the news that Gordon has been offered a position in New York, the mecca of all his ambitions. The company must disband. Eve seeks her dressing room to hide her tears. There Gordon finds her and is unable to withhold expressions of love back. Eve is happy until she learns from another member of the company that Gordon is married. She remembers her nurse's warning about the perfidy of men; she determines to seek out her father and never see Gordon again. She departs. Meantime Gordon receives a telegram to the effect that his wife, who had left him, is dead. In vain he seeks Eve to tell her. Eve has found her father. His friend, Austin, falls in love with Eve. The father is in favor of the match in that he owes Austin big sums of money. James Gordon's New York debut is attended with great success. Yet he still longs for Eve. He reads of her approaching marriage with bitterness. Eve learns Gordon's wife had been dead for some time, through a newspaper article, and realizes at last his intentions were honorable. She goes to the theater to see him in the new play. The sight of the man she loves overpowers all social ambitions; she casts aside her jewels and her wealth and seeks him out as a woman who understands life's real meaning.

Hiti was a little Japanese maid, but her feminine heart was the same as that organ of any other woman in the world, and it played the same tune. Hiti had big black eyes, soft olive hands and a stubborn will. Hiti fell in love. He was only a poor little Jap, but a manly chap. It was just like in your own little town; the more Hiti's parents objected to the fellow, the more determined was Hiti to marry him. Then a wealthy Japanese merchant came a wooing Hiti. Many miles he came, advising Hiti's parents that he was en route to bid for the hand of the enchanting Hiti. The parents were filled with joy, which of course Hiti didn't share. There was a little American girl in Hitl's town, the daughter of a consul or something, and the two girls had long been friends. It was the East's appeal to the Western, and the Western heart's silent response to the East. So Hiti went to the American girl and told her of her great sorrow, and American strategy and Oriental sagacity combined to defeat the logic of the old. It was thought of by we don't know whom; it might have been Hiti, or it might have been Elsie; but at any rate, when the mighty merchant reached the house, he found a very ugly Hiti indeed. Her face was enough to stop a Japanese automatic toy, and the merchant fled. Hiti married the right man. Hiti and Elsie often talk about the stunt that made her sweetheart her husband, and sometimes they laugh so loud that they wake the little Jap baby, who evidences his displeasure at the interruption of his siesta with a very ordinary baby wail.

The story is staged in an imaginary German principality. While working in the fields the wife is taken ill and her husband in leading her home passes the palace of the Duke of Safoulrug, on the grounds of which she sees the fleur de lis, and is so attracted by the flower that she can think of nothing but it for months after. When her baby girl is born there is a birthmark of the flower on her shoulder. The mother dies, and fifteen years later, Lisette, the baby girl, who has grown to be a charming young lady, is endowed by prenatal influence with a strong fascination for her mother's favorite flower. Passing the Duke's palace, she demands that her lover, Antoine, pluck one for her. As he is about to do so, the gardener, who ordered her mother away from the palace, demands that they move on, but Lisette manages to get a flower. This is witnessed by the young Duke, who says that she may possess it, notwithstanding the fact that it is a flower worn only by persons of royal blood. Lisette's father reprimands his daughter for taking the flower, and tells her the story of her mother. Lisette eventually marries the Duke, and although he is deeply in love with her she cares little for him save that by her marriage she is in possession of the fleur de lis. During a reception by the King, His Majesty becomes infatuated with Lisette and while dancing with her he takes her in his arms just as the Duke enters. The King extends his hand for the Duke to kiss. He obeys and subsequently goes into the garden where he commits suicide. The announcement does not affect the Duchess, and she is later installed in the King's palace as his mistress. His Majesty is taken ill and Antoine, who has become a famous surgeon, is to operate on him. Lisette is at the bedside of the King the next morning when the doctor arrives. Antoine does not recognize her, and she, puzzled, goes to her suite where she paces up and down for hours while the doctor is working on the King. The operation is a success, and Antoine carries the glad news to Lisette, who says she does not care, and puts her arms around the doctor. He throws her aside with the remark that the fleur de lis is between them. This enrages Lisette to such an extent that she burns her birthmark out with a hot iron. After a lapse of time Lisette is back with her father, and Antoine, feeling the power of love, also returns to the principality where, over the grave of Lisette's mother, a reconciliation is effected between Antoine and his sweetheart.

For fifty years the Dawsons and the Putnams have been engaged in a deadly family feud. Old Hen Dawson is now the patriarch of the Dawsons, and Jed Putnam is the leader of the Putnams. Dawson has an only daughter, June. There lives with him one, Wood Dawson, a nephew. In the rival family there is an only son, Joel. Joel and June were secret lovers. One day a gospel man comes into the territory and convinces the heads of the two families that their feud is ungodly. All their various henchmen are disarmed and peace and harmony is established. That is, until Wood learns that Joel Dawson is his successful rival for the hand of June. Then Wood becomes stiff-necked. He circulates the report that Joel and June have been carrying on improperly. He has words with Joel and in the general fight which follows Joel shoots and kills Wood. Both families reopen hostilities. Hen Dawson forgets his oath and sets out to kill Joel. However, when he finds Joel he finds June with him ready to elope. Tragedy is about to take place, when the gospel man forever puts an end to the long standing war of extermination. He marries Joel and June.

State Senator Ludlowe introduces a bill in the Senate prohibiting capital punishment. That night as he goes home he remembers that it is his daughter's birthday. While he is purchasing a costly jewel as a present for his daughter, a crook is watching him through the window of the jewelry store. That night the father hears a suspicious sound and hides himself to await developments. The crook enters the room, lays his revolver upon the table and approaches the safe. The senator holds the crook at bay with his own revolver. He is about to turn the housebreaker over to the police when he remembers the charity to criminals he recommends in his bill. He liberates the crook with admonitions to lead a better life. Left alone, the senator becomes drowsy and falls asleep in his chair. He dreams that the crook returns and re-enters his house, still bent upon stealing the jewel. In the dream he sees the crook shoot and kill his daughter, and later he sees the crook arrested. He awakens and begins studying over his bill to prohibit capital punishment. He is convinced that after his charitable action in liberating the burglar, had he returned and killed his daughter, as he dreamed, he would have been deserving of capital punishment. In the senate chamber he causes a sensation by withdrawing his bill without explanation.

Mrs. Burne-Smith and Mrs. Winthrop have determined to make a match between their respective children regardless of the fact that the two in question have never seen each other. Mrs. Burne-Smith thinks by making the brilliant match with wealthy Allen Winthrop she will be enabled to pay off some of her pressing debts. Enid Burne-Smith has a mind of her own, and has often had thoughts of a handsome lover who would carry her off despite her protests. Naturally she does not fall in with her mother's plans and it takes quite an argument before she is brought "in line." Allen Winthrop has just returned from abroad and views with amusement the efforts of his mother to try and win him to assent to the matchmakers' plans. He finally agrees to accompany his mother that night to the Burne-Smiths. Allen has received an anonymous letter stating that the agent who is in charge of one of his tenements is a crook. He decides to investigate the matter. Allen and his mother arrive at the Burne-Smiths and are delayed waiting for Enid She has flatly refused to meet Allen, and, after tying the maid up, makes her escape and finally ends up in a tenement house, where she gets rooms. The next day Allen disguises himself and secures rooms in his own tenement. This is the same place where Enid is staying, and she has become acquainted with Mabel and her sweetheart, George. Enid secures work and Mabel helps her. Every evening after work, the girls are met by their lovers and Enid sighs as she thinks she has no one to look after her. Enid notices that the landlord is familiar with Mabel and later finds that the girl has coaxed him to put off collecting the rent. With the rent money she has been buying clothes with which to get married. She and Allen meet several times and are mutually attracted. George has noticed Martin, the landlord, around Mabel, and has told her to "cut him off" her calling list. She tells of her indebtedness to him to Enid, and the latter pawns her last piece of jewelry to secure funds with which to release Mabel from the landlord's clutches. Martin comes to the girl's room and, while they are arguing, George and Allen come to the door demanding entrance. Mabel has refused to let Enid pay her rent and when she hears George at the door, she is frightened and persuades Martin to hide in the closet. George sees the money on the floor and is still suspicious. Martin then comes out of hiding, claims the money, and says that he bought the dresses for the girl. Enid, seeing that the love between George and Mabel is about to be broken up, takes all the blame and says the dresses are hers. George takes Mabel in his arms and tells her that she had better quit going with Enid. Allen is very much disappointed in the girl and leaves her. too. Enid then determines to return home and forget her little adventure. Allen places George in charge of his tenement, discharging Martin. Allen then tries in vain to find some trace of Enid. He and his mother are invited to the Burne-Smiths for dinner and he listlessly goes with her. The two mothers are delighted when Enid and Allen meet. The two stare at each other like long lost friends. The plans of the two matchmakers have been more than fulfilled, and as the story ends, Enid and Allen are planning their honeymoon.