In the mountains of West Virginia, Alderson Cree is mortally wounded in an ambush by Kip Ryerson, after Kip's wife, Martha, seeks refuge at the Crees's home for herself and her stepdaughter, Eileen. Cree makes his young son, David, promise to avenge his death once he has grown into manhood. As David Cree runs for help, Alderson recants and instructs Martha Ryerson to release his son from his promise. However, to eliminate her brutal spouse, Martha Ryerson remains silent, and George Hedrick, the local storekeeper, leads a crowd to drive Kip out of town. Hedrick later announces Kip's death, relieving David of his obligation to his father. Years pass, and David, now an adult, is engaged to Mary Reddin. When Kip Ryerson returns to town, David's mother demands that he keep his promise to avenge his father.

In dire financial straits, businessman John Baird considers liquidating the bonds that are held in trust for his little daughter Margery. Failing to comprehend her husband's desperation, Virginia Baird refuses his request and, upon overhearing his lawyer advising him to utilize the bonds without consulting her, she decides to place them in the hands of George Drake, an old friend. Drake hijacks the securities, however, and their disappearance leads to the break up of the Baird's marriage, resulting in Virginia leaving the house. Attempting to console her father, Margery sets out on her pony to bring her mother home. But she is held up on the road by Captain Kidd Jr., who adopts her as his first mate, and the two children take up residence on a grass hut on a nearby island.

The daughter of a wealthy French vintner, Justine is promised in marriage to German aristocrat Kurt Von Klassner, even though her heart belongs to Bertrand Duroc, the humble overseer of her father's estate. His pride wounded, Von Klassner murders Duroc and shifts the blame to marauding poachers.

A lost Film. Mary Pickford plays a socialite who, having lost her fortune, takes a job as a Swedish cook. She falls in love with a chauffeur who, lo and behold, is a slumming millionaire.

As a baby, John Ermine is stolen from a wagon train by the Crow Indians and is adopted by Chief Fire Bear. John grows to manhood, ignorant that he is a white man until his parentage is disclosed to him by Crooked Bear, a white hermit who is on friendly terms with the Crows. Crooked Bear teaches John the language and customs of the white man's civilization, impressing upon him that it is his sacred responsibility to keep peace between the white men and the Indians.

A doctor's wife is arrested for educating impoverished women about birth control.

Fishermaid Marcia Manot finds an emerald which once belonged to a Norse queen and is cursed. Greedy American Silas Martin marries her, then sets her up for divorce. She kills him and weds his business manager Sterling, but a detective learns about Silas' death.

Thrifty orphan Norah MacPherson meets wealthy young James Patterson, who gets her a job as a chorus girl. They fall in love. To put up a good front, she spends all her money on clothes. Patterson doubts her when he sees her wearing a string of fake pearls; he then finds that she hasn't been unfaithful, and they are reconciled.

When John Conroy's wife takes his infant son Jack and runs away with another man, Conroy becomes a tramp and goes to Alaska. Fifteen years later, he returns and learns that his son Jack is being coerced into marrying Edith Wyatt, the daughter of a congressman, in order to further the political ambitions of his stepfather, Mayor Horace Manners. Conroy makes friends with the boy, who is unaware that the congenial tramp is actually his father. Jack loves cobbler's daughter Beth Stafford, and when Conroy discovers that Manners plans to frame Jack for the loss of city funds and thus scare him into marriage with Edith, he intercedes and insures that his son receives both his rightful inheritance and the woman whom he loves. After securing the boy's happiness, Conroy slips away without revealing his true identity to his son.