Telephone operator Kitty O'Brien can't help but get involved in the problems of her customers. Right now she is concerning herself with the well-being of Tom Blake, the honest son of crooked political boss Jim Blake.

When the body of Col. S.F. Hargraves was found in a room in the rear of Cradelbaughs, a gambling house, with a bullet in his heart, the police found "Big Jim" Pemmican, the manager of the place, coolly pacing the floor when they arrived.

Captain Mills is jealous of Jim Clifford, his fellow officer at the British War Department, so he steals an important document in an attempt to make Clifford look bad. Clifford has to undergo quite a bit to get the papers back, and his adventures take him to several fancy weekend parties, including one on a yacht, which wrecks. He discovers that Mills gave the document to Grace Weston, who doesn't realize what she's got.

A woman marries a German immigrant in New York, but loses him when her soiled past is revealed. He returns to Germany after the beginning of the First World War, where he becomes a high-ranking officer in the German army. His wife joins the Red Cross and, in a combat hospital, discovers her wounded husband. Her love for both her husband and her country lead her to a great sacrifice.

Hajj, a rascally beggar on the periphery of the court of Baghdad, schemes to marry his daughter to royalty and to win the heart of the queen of the castle himself.

A young man and woman are considering marriage; eugenicist Harry J Haiselden warns that they are ill-matched and will produce defective offspring. He is right; their baby is born defective, dies quickly and floats into heaven.

A story of the First World War, told in semi-documentary style, focusing on the iniquities of the German war machine, and with its dramatic center the sinking by a German U-boat of the passenger liner Lusitania in 1915.

The wanton dancer Thais, tries to entice Paphnutius from becoming a monk but fails. He later returns to reclaim her soul and follow in his footsteps. They attempt to live lives of simplicity, but the pull of worldliness is too strong.

Katherine Brinkley, a rich young woman who delights in challenging conventions, elopes with a married young musician, Nicolai Brouevitch, but when he deserts her she is cast aside by society. Wandering off to Italy, she meets Franklin Shelby, a young American also married, with whom she falls in love.