Bob Gilmore, a young clubman, is called by telephone to his home, where his parents are giving him a birthday party. He overhears one of the men guests make a slurring remark about his mother's appearance, and proceeds to punish him then and there, throwing the entire gathering into an uproar. Later in the evening he assumes guilt for a check which had been in reality forged by his foster father, in order to save the mother's feelings, but obtains a written confession from the guilty man for future use if necessary. Learning that he had been adopted from a foundling asylum in infancy, Bob decides to go to New York to see if he cannot learn his real name, which he understands begins with "Mor."

An eminent pianist is made deaf by an anarchist's bomb during a command performance.

Following in his dad's footsteps, Shefford devotes himself to freeing his community from the grip of a particularly despotic Mormon sect. In so doing, he rescues his foster sister Fay Larkin, who is coveted by lecherous Mormon elder Wagoner. As was the case in Riders of the Purple Sage, the Mormons are villains simply because they are Mormons.

Mark Sabre hires young Effie Bright to keep his snobbish, cold-hearted wife Mabel company while he goes off to war. When he returns home from the front wounded, he finds that Mabel has fired Effie, who shows up at Mark's door with her baby, having no place to go. Mark takes her in, but Mabel leaves him when the town shuns him for what they believe is going on with Mark and Effie. Matters are further complicated when Effie, driven to desperation, commits an unspeakable act that results in Mark having a nervous breakdown--and then things get worse.

Jean, a wealthy young Canadian back from a trip to Europe, meets and falls for Carmen, a pretty young Spanish girl. They marry and have a daughter, but soon afterward Jean discovers his wife is having an affair. She takes her daughter and leaves him, and Jean's luck gets even worse--he loses his business in a fire and his thieving father-in-law steals what little money he has left.

Ellen Shannon, the daughter of self-made Irish politician Pat Shannon, is engaged to Ted Breslin, but because Pat began his career as a menial laborer, Ted's mother, Mrs. J. De Barth Breslin, refuses to sanction the marriage. Heartbroken, Ted takes up drinking and gambling with "Poker" LeMoyne and Don Jackson, while Ellen attends a finishing school hoping to improve herself. While trying to elude her chaperone, Ellen unwittingly dashes into a man's hotel room, and from the window, she witnesses Don and "Poker" playing cards, while Ted lies unconscious from too much drink. When the two gamblers quarrel, Don kills "Poker," but Ted is accused of the crime.

Karl Breitman, obsessed with the notion that he is a descendant of Napoleon, is driven to restore the monarchy in France. To accomplish this, he courts Hedda Gobert, who, he has learned, possesses Napoleon's papers. Upon winning Hedda, Breitman steals the documents, which lead him to America and the home of Admiral Killigrew where, the papers allege, the emperor's hidden wealth resides.

A traveling preacher has, through his faith, the power to heal, but loses it when he falls in love. Considered lost.

When the man calling himself Everard Dominey returns home, his loved ones recognize that something about him is different. But with Europe racing toward war and England infiltrated by saboteurs, will the truth emerge before it is too late?

Patriotism, love and treason in the United States during the First World War. Barker manages to give every scene the right climate through inventive use of color. From semi-documentary to cruel melodrama.