Hillaire Latour, a warmhearted Canadian trapper, marries Rosalie Dufresne and then travels into the woods to seek his fortune as a lumberman. At the camp, he befriends "Spud" Lafferty, who for six years has tried unsuccessfully to return home with his money, each time falling prey to a beautiful woman who works in the saloon "down the hill." When Hillaire learns through a letter that he is a father, he asks for his money and begins the journey home, but on his first night away from camp, he enters the saloon, where he is robbed by the beautiful Louise.

Country bumpkin Frank Marham comes to New York City to work in a world-famous jewelry store. At the hotel where he lives, Frank meets Ruth Gardner, a newspaper reporter who is investigating the operations of a gang of jewel thieves, as is also her admirer, detective Dan Lantry. The store's manager, Roger Imlay, is a member of the gang

Spaulding Nelson moves into an apartment after his uncle has been driven from it by the sounds of screams and whispers. Upon undertaking an investigation, he meets neighbor Barbara Bradford, whose sister Clara is being tormented by the recurring sounds of her dead husband Roldo's voice.

Wealthy businessman Carson Burr discovers first-hand the problem of social unrest when he loses his cook and his chauffeur and he is insulted by a waiter. Burr runs for mayor to improve the labor situation and is elected. The editor of The Red Messenger organizes the streetcar drivers to begin a general strike, but Burr manages to break up the strike

After having been wrongly accused of murder and robbery, a heretofore kindly and gregarious weaver becomes a nasty, bitter, lonely old miser. Originally a seven-reel picture, a three-reel re-release survives.

The production vindicated the new feature-length movie format by restoring several characters, plot complications, and atmosphere that had been truncated in Thanhouser’s 1910 version of less than one-sixth the length.

The lead Florence La Badie plays dual roles. Clever editing is used for the scene where her two characters meet. La Badie, however, does appear twice within a scene via superimposition, but that's in a flashback-within-a-mirror scene. There are a couple such scenes where La Badie's reflection in the mirror reflects her reflective melancholy mood.

Convicted in a revolutionary conspiracy, a man rashly states that he wishes never again to hear the name of the United States of America. The judge grants him his wish, sentencing him to life aboard a ship always at sea, aboard with sailors under orders never to let him hear of his homeland in any way. The punishment nearly destroys him, while changing him thoroughly.

An aging King invites disaster, when he abdicates to his corrupt, toadying daughters, and rejects his loving and honest one.

After learning that her stepfather, John Braun, is a spy, Ruth leaves him and starts out upon a cross-country journey. In her travels, she sees a plane crash to earth and rushes to assist its pilot, John Barker. The two fall in love and are married. In the midst of their honeymoon, war breaks out and John is called to his post, leaving Ruth alone with only the servants to protect her. In John's absence, the enemy invades the countryside, commandeers the Barker house and imprisons Ruth in her room. Meanwhile, John takes leave to search for his wife. Managing to get through the enemy line, he arrives just as Ruth, enraged at the action of the invaders, dynamites the cellar of the house. As the building explodes, Ruth and John escape in his plane.