A patriotic but short American man tries without luck to qualify for the Army, but can't get in until a knock on the head raises a lump high enough for him to pass the height requirement. Meanwhile, his lady friend decides to become a Secret Service agent, though she is unable to keep the fact a secret, even from the German spies she hopes to apprehend.

When his mother dies, young Peter Ibbetson leaves Paris and his best friend, Mary, behind to live with a severe uncle in England. Years later, Peter is an architect with little time for women, until he begins a project with the Duke and Duchess of Towers. When Peter and the duchess become great friends, she reveals that she is Mary — but the duke soon suspects his wife of infidelity and challenges Peter to a duel, threatening the pair's second chance.

Little Patty Barnes lives with her grandfather, Captain Amos Barnes, in a rickety shack on the New England coast. The wealthy Mrs. Gaythorne, who wishes to adopt Patty, instructs James Henley to secure the mortgage on the shack, and when Amos, now homeless and penniless, departs for the poor farm, Patty is forced to live with the cruel old woman.

Philanthropical druggist Daniel Abbott, occasionally robs the rich to take care of the poor, goes to court with his young ward, Jimmy Nolan. In the courtroom Daniel meets Mrs. Warren, who, despondent over her inability to care for a newborn baby, has been charged with attempted suicide. Daniel takes mother and daughter under his wing, watching with pride as the girl, Helen, and his ward, Jimmy, grow to a tender adolescence. Sylvester Doane, a tenement owner, falls in love with Helen, and Daniel makes plans to rob him. Jimmy learns with shock of the plans and goes to Doane's apartment to prevent the robbery. Jimmy takes the gems to forestall his father, but he is found with them in his possession and put in jail.

A young girl who lives in the slums of London, is in love with a thief. She persuades him to give up his life of crime. Meanwhile, an eccentric millionaire, who has been diagnosed with an incurable dementia, becomes so despondent, he decides to commit suicide. He disguises himself as a vagrant, and wanders into the slums. As he tries to find the courage to kill himself, he is encountered by the young girl. She rationalizes him out of the cowardly act. Her genuine sweetness and strong faith, effects him to such an extent, he begins to believe a recovery is possible. Now the girl's sweetheart has been falsely accused of murder and only the millionaire's licentious nephew can give him an alibi.

Madeleine steals a string of pearls in Paris and uses American engineer Tom, who is driving on his vacation to Spain, to get the pearls out of France. But getting the pearls back from him proves to be difficult without falling in love.

Phony spiritualists were given a good going-over in the early talkie melodrama Darkened Rooms. Evelyn Brent stars as Ellen, a fraudulent medium working in cahoots with genuine clairvoyant Emory Jago (Neil Hamilton). The plotline is secondary; the film's main purpose was to emulate the methods of such professional "de-bunkers" as Mrs. Harry Houdini by exposing the various tricks of the spiritualist's trade.

An Austrian soldier must choose between a wealthy fiancee and a new girl who takes his fancy.

In Savenay, France, the beautiful Arlette runs the local inn with her grandfather, Chaupin. Starving artist Richard Vale comes to stay at the inn and takes a liking to Arlette, who falls madly in love with him after modeling for his sketches. But when Prince Boissard arrives in Savenay and also takes an interest in Arlette, he makes a deal with the starving artist: Hell make Richard famous is Arlette can be the Princes mistress.