Two confidence men pose as investors to fleece the denizens of a small town. They build a carpet-tack factory with the funds, but some stockholders are suspicious. Eventually, someone tries to take over the business by buying it from them. The film is presumed lost.

A woman finds herself being a unpaid skivvy to her husband, two daughters and her son.

An extravagant girl reforms when her father goes bust.

A string of valuable pearls provides the motivation for the murder of Wareing, a widowed banker, who intended them for his daughter, Mary. She is comforted by Barton, a criminologist and friend of her late father, who appears to have left his financial affairs in a terrible state. Meanwhile, Mary's fiancé works diligently to identify the murderer. Although the criminologist places the blame on Wareing's butler, a reformed burglar, the killer is finally revealed to be Barton himself.