The heir to a fortune will only receive his inheritance if he spends the night in a supposedly haunted house.

Walking through the Ghetto, Arthur Kellogg rescues Tryphena Winters, an actress, and her little sister, Salome, from starvation. He falls in love with, and proposes marriage to Tryphena, but she tells him she must first make her success on the stage.

The two sons of Judge Stone, William and Wylie, are both in love with Nancy Sevier. Wylie is of a jealous temperament and believes he sees in Nancy's acceptance of his brother's attentions a proof of her preference for him. William monopolizes Nancy until Wylie is almost beside himself with rage and jealousy.

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.

Dick, a young boy hears wondrous tales of London, where the streets are paced with gold. At night he dreams of the capital. The next day he leaves his country home to see his fortune in London. He fails to find work at first and is almost starving when a wealthy sea-merchant takes him in as a cook's help. The cook takes an instant dislike to him and tortures him mercilessly. His garret is full of rats and he often goes without food. One day, a man on the street takes him for a beer and gives him a coin, which he uses to buy a cat.

Jean, a young woman raised as a boy by her father who after his death is sent to a reformatory because of her boyish behavior. She later escapes, meets and falls in love with an artist named Craig Atwood, and must endure a series of trials to prove she is worthy of his love.