Cardinal Mercier protects the altar of his church from desecration when German forces invade the Belgian city of Louvain during World War I. Although the soldiers commit widespread atrocities, the cardinal does his best to protect the townspeople.

Edith Sturgis, the daughter of a judge, returns from studies abroad to find her widowed father remarried. The new Mrs. Sturgis does not reveal that she has a son Dick, once unjustly jailed by Judge Sturgis, but now working as a reporter while still maintaining an association with the Brownlow gang. Quarrelling with her stepmother, Edith leaves home, meets Dick and falls in love.

Joan, an earnest little orphan who lives in an asylum near the World War I training camp at Plattsburg, reads the story of "Joan of Arc" and soon imagines that she is the reincarnation of the peasant-soldier. As she sits in the cellar reading, she hears voices plotting against the government. She thinks the voices are from another world but they actually belong to a group of German spies. The agents plan to acquire the important invention of a young man named Ingleton, who is staying at the camp under the guardianship of Captain Lane. Joan relates this information to the captain, with whom she is in love, but he at first refuses to believe her. Later, however, he learns that the plot is real, and with Joan's help, he captures the spies.

Fatty comes up with a plan to prank his cowboy buddies. He announces that his sister Kitty is coming to visit, but it's not at all what his friends expected.

Madeline Jekyll meets Baron Stana, a distinguished looking man, and finds her father has promised her in marriage to Daggerts, a politician, who, in reward, has agreed to see that Jekyll is elected governor. Madeline is already in love with Robert Mayhew, and rebels at the prearranged marriage.

Ruth Hoagland grows up on the Florida Keys with no companion other than her father, a half-witted fisherman who spends most of his time hunting for buried treasure. Vacationing yachtsman Bob Winthrop and Ruth fall in love, but Winthrop returns to New York, and after a year, has forgotten Ruth. After finding two chests in a cave, Ruth locates her father unconscious from a fall. She goes to the mainland for help, but returns with the Reverend Josiah Arbuthnot and Dr. William Strong, to find her father dead. Strong, out of kindness, offers to marry her, but Ruth declines, sure that Winthrop will return.

While visiting General Forbes, a friend of his Daddy, Sonny Jim imitates the soldiers at the garrison and feels certain that he was cut out for one of them. The General tells him always to help a comrade in distress. Later, a convict escapes from prison and coming upon Sonny Jim playing sentinel, asks help and says he is a comrade in distress. Sonny Jim remembers the General's command, secures one of his father's suits, a large chicken and an apple pie, and finds the convict a hiding place in the cellar.

The Suspect is a 1916 lost silent film directed by S. Rankin Drew. Set in France and Russia, the plot revolves around the cruelties of Russian Grand Duke Karatoff, known to friends and enemies alike as "the butcher." Sophie, leader of a band of revolutionaries, attempts to assassinate Karatoff but accidentally wounds his son Paul instead.

Husbandless Jane has her eye set on Willie but he is too bashful to take the initiative. To make him jealous, she creates a scarecrowl who happens to resemble the notorious bank robber Banker Bill. The constable, sure she is harboring the fugitive, is out to make an arrest.

De Goat only barbers to earn enough to keep supplied with musical instruments and he certainly keeps a goodly stock of them. Between (also during) shaves he amuses himself by playing solos on the violin or whatever instrument happens to be near at hand. Even when he is running the "scythe" over the chin whiskers of an unfortunate victim, he cannot resist the temptation to play a one handed serenade to himself on the flute. Intent on his music, he allows the weapons of his trade to wander aimlessly over the countenances of his customers with tragic results. When a Chink finds that his queue is among the missing, a fond mother sees her Percy shorn of his curly locks, and Wild Bill from out Nevada way misses half his hirsute adornment, bedlam is cut loose and the barber shop is ransacked. De Goat manages to escape his pursuers by hiding in a lunatic asylum, but when the superintendent sees him, he extends a cordial invitation to sojourn for a while in a padded cell.