Johnny Spivins adores Milly Fields, but since he's only an errand boy at the local grocery, he can't get her to look his way. Things get even worse when a city boy comes to town and boards at the Fields' home.

Iris Lee is reared in the small town of Dalton by her deceased mother's friend, Martha Kane, and when she reaches adulthood, Martha's son Jim falls in love with her. When Iris fails to return his affections, Mrs. Kane treats her so coldly that Iris decides to leave the stuffy little village for the metropolis. On her journey, she accepts a ride with Jack Andrews, but after he attempts to kiss her, she leaps from the car and walks the rest of the way. While singing in the choir of a large metropolitan church, she is discovered by Jack's wealthy father Peter, who recommends her as a soloist. Light opera star Helen Manning, who has helped Iris to cultivate her voice, quarrels with her theatrical manager, and Iris is offered her position.

Allen Spargo, a mining engineer who is betrothed to Theresa Kane, goes West to make his fortune and is seriously injured in an accident. Kate Leonard, who falls in love with him while nursing him to recovery, jealously intercepts his fiancée's letters and then writes Theresa that Allen is dead.

The Dawn of Understanding is a lost 1918 American silent Western comedy film produced by The Vitagraph Company of America and directed by David Smith. It stars Bessie Love in the first film of her nine-film contract with Vitagraph.

Thinking it is a worthless trinket, Dorothy trades her husband’s prized Aztec idol to a street peddler in exchange for a beautiful silk shawl. She soon discovers the idol is actually an extremely valuable artifact. Desperate to retrieve it before her husband notices, she learns that it has already been purchased by their neighbor, an artist named Cambridge. Dorothy enters Cambridge’s apartment to recover the idol secretly. Her efforts lead to a series of comedic misunderstandings and frantic situations as she tries to protect her marriage and her husband's property.

After a spectacular college football career, John Harkless leaves the university to pursue a place in Indiana politics. He buys the failing Plattville Herald and, using the newspaper to expose various illegal activities, sets out to rid the county of all mobsters and corrupt officials.

Margot Sperry, who keeps house for her guardian, a professor who wants to revert to primitive modes of living, finds it difficult to find food in the winter wilderness and resorts to pilfering from the Bates's winter camp. Divvy, engaged to a girl he does not love, meets Margot on one of her raids and falls in love with her. Baptiste, a half-breed employed by the Bates family, is discharged for stealing and burns the camp, driving the family to refuge with Margot. Elsie, hoping to regain Divvy's affections, dresses in boyish clothes similar to Margot's. Joining forces with Baptiste, they capture Margot, and Baptiste takes her in a canoe downstream. Realizing her mistake, Elsie warns Divvy, who bests the half-breed and then rescues Margot from the falls. A lost film.

Harris Levi (Fred Warren) brings up Meg (Shirley Mason), who was left in his father's pawnshop by her mother. Anxious that she have a good environment, Harris takes her to live with his friend Robert. When her mother returns to claim Meg, Robert is revealed to be both Meg's father and the man with whom Harris' wife eloped. Meg is happily reunited with her parents and her sweetheart, Chick Saxe.