Elam "Burning Daylight" Harnish is a prospector who makes a million dollars in the Dawson, Alaska gold rush and loses the million dollars in Dawson. He journeys to San Francisco, makes three million dollars and loses it in San Francisco. He returns to Alaska and eventually finds his treasure.

Judge Robert Appleton (Winter Hall) has led an exemplary life. His four children, however, fell short once they grew up and had to fend for themselves. When Appleton dies, his widow (Lydia Knott) explains that his last request was that each child spend one hour of contemplation with his body. The first is the youngest daughter, Daisy (Rosemary Theby), an artist of note who was betrayed and left with a son to raise out of wedlock. Next is Luke (Milton Sills), a wild young man who ran away at 19, and even though he is now married and a father, he still can't quite settle down. The eldest son, Bob (Wilfred Lucas), is next -- he wed a wealthy woman, but the marriage has no love.

A wealthy Parisian surgeon finds himself serving time in a brutal penal colony.

Miriam Monroe and John Conrad are two young scientific workers who, independently of each other, have discovered a chemical called exonite. Miriam discovered it while searching for a cure for cancer, while Conrad used it as a basis for a powerful explosive.

Polly Hopkins belongs to a family of squatters living in Silent City. The poor squatters are constantly at odds with the wealthy "hilltoppers," but Polly's grandmother has gone against popular opinion by teaching Polly to love everybody. Polly keeps the faith, even when her sister's husband is railroaded into jail.

Debutante Mary Manners has inherited the power of mind-reading from her gypsy ancestors.

Lillia is a small town girl who gets involved with the wrong crowd in Paris. Arrested by police prefect Nigel De Brulier, Lillia agrees to seduce a politically important foreign prince Ernest Hilliard in exchange for her freedom.

Set in Biblical times, this tells the story of how Jesus affected the lives of two people: Joseph, a young Jewish man, and Maximums, a centurion in the Roman army.

Peter Barton leaves his wealth to his niece, Mary, disinheriting his dissipated son, Edgar, who steals the will. Jack Smart, a rascal, an associate of Edgar's, keeps close watch upon him. At the point of a revolver he compels Edgar to surrender the will to him. Mary, the niece, is obliged to go to work, takes a position as a reporter, and meets Tom Swayne, who falls in love with her. Tom sees Jack Smart in a restaurant, and after the villain leaves, Tom picks up a menu card, upon which Smart has written some hieroglyphics. Mary shows him an envelope which she picked up in her uncle's room, where Smart took the will from Edgar, after he had stolen it. Tom compares it and the hieroglyphics on it with those on the menu card. They are the same.