Billy Morrow (Ben Lyon), who comes from a wealthy family, is sailing to Europe with his father (Holbrook Blinn) on their yacht. Along for the ride is Mrs. Parr (Claire Eames) and her stepdaughter. Near the French coast, Billy discovers that Mrs. Parr wants to arrange a marriage between him and the girl, so he escapes and takes a lifeboat ashore.

An eminent pianist is made deaf by an anarchist's bomb during a command performance.

Jacqueline Roland, the daughter of a backwoodsman, meets Henri Dubois during a visit to the city, but is unresponsive to his attentions. Henri later takes charge of the lumber camp where Jacqueline lives, and is closely followed by Li Chang, who is blackmailing him to keep secret a murder he committed years earlier. The new boss is determined to win Jacqueline for himself and convinces her lover, Raoul Radon, that she no longer cares for him. When Li Chang kidnaps Jacqueline, Henri comes to claim her and an oil lamp is upset during the ensuing struggle. As the fire spreads into the forest, Jacqueline escapes with Li Ching in pursuit. She and Raoul are reunited, while Henri perishes in the blaze.

A beautiful secretary has her pick of the men in the office, but instead of marrying the boss, she takes one of his junior staff. Later, when she is suspected of committing a murder, her husband confesses to it--although he didn't do it--in order to protect her. Complications ensue.

An English circus clown finds he's lost his touch after returning from war.

Orphaned as children, David and his sister are sent to live with separate families, where both are abused, and his sister dies. Filled with hostility, David now an adult, goes on a mission to seek vengeance on the adopting family.

Before he can avenge a crooked card game, Dan Carrington suffers heart failure and dies in his chair. John Tralee, the cheater, feels a pang of guilt when he discovers that he has taken all of Carrington's money and adopts the dead man's little girl, Lois. The girl grows up and the gambling hall becomes her second home.

In order to provide for her widowed mother, Louise Mordyke, Ethel marries Arthur Woodridge, a wealthy philanthropist who is considerably older than she. Although she respects her husband, Ethel resumes an affair with Howard Rosedale, the husband of her cousin Helen. Helen hires a detective, who discovers the lovers at a roadhouse. Rushing from the inn, Ethel is caught in a thunderstorm, after which she contracts pneumonia and dies, repentant but unconfessed. Arthur grieves so deeply that Louise and Helen fear for his sanity, and when Louise learns that he is contemplating suicide, she reveals the truth about Ethel's infidelity. Arthur, incredulous, denounces her. Following Howard's sudden death, however, Helen confirms the story. Louise and Arthur marry, and Helen weds an old friend.

A young woman, victim of a scandal involving her lover believed killed in France during war, is loved by another man who urges her to marry him. After they are married, the husband becomes jealous of the lost lover. One day the lover returns injured and with amnesia. After much drama happiness is restored.

Eric Fane (Richard Barthelmess) is a composer unwilling to compromise his dream for a steady job back home in the United States. After his studies in Italy, he moves to Paris, where he is forced to write popular songs for money when he stops receiving support from his father. He tires of selling out and, after an encounter with the mob, starts to travel. He begins a madcap journey from Paris to Port Said, Egypt, and to the South Seas, where he believes he has found love with Teita (Bessie Love).