When Count Peter Turgeneff, his daughter, Nadia, and Paul, his generous-hearted son, came to live in the Governor's palace in the Russian province of Valogda, there was rejoicing among the oppressed race whose home was in the Ghetto.

Bored by her country life and misunderstood by her parents, Emma Rolfe marries Dr. Charles Bovar, an older man whose dedication to his medical practice results in wifely neglect. To alleviate her growing loneliness, Emma enjoys the company of many of the young men from the village and eventually begins an affair with Rudolph Bulwer.

A diver saves his best friend's life but loses his own arm in doing so. Later, unable to find work because of his missing arm, he is forced to go to work for a criminal searching for lost treasures. Meanwhile his friend, who has since become a policeman, finds himself assigned to break up the crook's operation and bring in his gang--including the man who saved his life.

In the 1840s, Ramsey MacKay, the driver for the struggling Wells Fargo mail and freight company, will secure an important contract if he delivers fresh oysters to Buffalo from New York City. When he rescues Justine Pryor and her mother, who are stranded in a broken wagon on his route, he doesn't let them slow him down and gives the ladies an exhilirating ride into Buffalo. He arrives in time to obtain the contract and is then sent by company president Henry Wells to St. Louis to establish a branch office.

The story tells of the reformation of a millionaire's son, who later develops such consistent speed on the "draw" and on a horse that it wins for him the title of "The Blue Streak." Driven from home, the "Streak" changes his mode of living entirely. News of his adventurous spirit penetrates even into the town of Sterling, beyond the Rockies, where he one day finds himself. He strolls into the common meeting-place there, the saloon, and proceeds to prevent a forced marriage between the proprietor's daughter, "The Fledgling," and a gambler by the simple expedient of covering all with his revolver while preparing to make her captive himself.

Mary Bruce is wooed by Lord Haverford but loves Roger Benton, her father's secretary. To finalize his marriage proposal, Lord Haverford offers her father a large sum of money and, being low on funds, Mr. Bruce accepts it, then places it in a safe. Horrified by her father's actions, Mary steals the cash from the safe that night, but on her way out is overcome by another thief whose wrist she bites in the ensuing tussle.