The story of the rise and fall of Rasputin, the so-called "mad monk" who dominated the court of the Russian czar in the period prior to the Russian revolution.

Without social or romantic interests, young Basil Hammond goes to Paris to study paleontology and to bring back a report to his guardian on the manners and moral character of her granddaughter, Liane. At first he is disgusted by her attempts to vamp him, but eventually, he falls in love with her.

While traveling in Europe Philip Quentin encounters his former sweetheart, Dorothy Garrison, and finds that she is now engaged to Prince Ugo Ravorelli, whom Philip recognizes as the man wanted for a murder in Brazil.

Sylvia Landis promises to marry the wealthy but unprincipled Quarrier because of his social standing. Avarice is the only emotion that Sylvia feels towards her fiance, and when she meets Stephen Siward, a young man afflicted with alcoholism, she falls in love.

Sentenced to be deported from Hawaii, Hung Chin Chung pledges twenty years of service to Henry Drew to escape the certain death that awaits him in China. Rage at his humiliation and inability to marry as a free man smolders in him throughout his servitude, near the end of which he sails to San Francisco with the Drew family. Also on board is Ralph Coolidge, who tries to retrieve from Drew his share of their gold mine, and who loves Drew's secretary, Mary-Will Tellfair. Shortly after their arrival, Henry Drew is murdered; suspicion falls on Ralph, the owner of the murder weapon, a curious Chinese dagger; but subsequent events lead Hung Chin Chung to confess to the crime.

A naive youngster is sold a phony mine.

An Egyptian Princess is infatuated with Karmet, a Syrian prince who is disguised as a merchant. He, however, loves Arvia, a dancer. The Princess plots to sacrifice Arvia to the sacred crocodiles. Arvia is saved by her father and united to Karmet. The princess weds Prince Tut, who afterwards becomes King of Egypt.

At a London auction, Princess Sonia bids against her husband, exiled Prince Victor, for a Corot landscape in which incriminating letters Sonia wrote are hidden, but it is bought by Michael Lanyard, suspected of being the mysterious, international thief "The Lone Wolf." After Lanyard gives Sonia the letters, she divorces Victor, marries Lanyard and dies after bearing their daughter Sonia. Years later, Sonia, who thinks she is the daughter of the Princess' maid, is found by Victor, now the leader of an underworld gang of Oriental crooks and Bolsheviks. Saying he is her father, Victor brings her to his home, hoping to entice Lanyard to make an appearance.

Gritzko, a prince of pre-World War I Russia, is the ultimate ladies' man. Women fall at his feet -- all except for a young but cold British widow, Tamara Loraine. While she's spurning his advances, Tamara is growing ever more fascinated with Gritzko.

Palestine, under the rule of Rome. Salome, daughter of Herodias and both niece and stepdaughter of King Herod, becomes infatuated with the prophet John the Baptist, who publicly denounces the depravity of the royal family and proclaims the arrival of a new messiah. (Film presumed lost.)