Known as "Wildflower," Letty Roberts meets Arnold Boyd, a wealthy man who is weary of life in the city.

Wall Street financier Frederick Searles goes bankrupt, prompting his mercenary wife to marry their eldest daughter Needa to the wealthy, disreputable John Davis Warren, despite Needa's love for Hugh Stanton.

Esther Wells is dumped by her husband, Martin, just as she's boarding a train. She gets off at the next stop, wanders into a cabin owned by Samuel Radburn, who happens to have been swindled out of a mine by Martin.

The young wife only reflected her aspiring mother's teaching. Her one ambition seemed to be for display and to keep her reputation as a woman of fashion. The husband's first weakness in fearing to tell her that the source of her power had gone, resulted in a second, a near-theft, nevertheless incriminating. Through it came the lesson.

On the day of the meeting which should settle the controversy regarding the Panama Canal, the Japanese Embassy commissioned Olga to obtain a copy of the agreement. The young Secretary to the Secretary of State became her dupe, but the detective succeeded in recovering the stolen treaty by a clever unwinding of threads taking thereby a desperate and thrilling chance.

When Mrs. Van Nostra returned from Europe her new tiara was much advertised. A new lady's maid arrived, highly recommended, but following events proved that she was but the accomplice of Raffles. His crafty substitution of the diamonds on the famous tiara was discovered by the society detective, who captured the offenders in spite of their clever ruse.

In this film one is shown the contrast of two fathers. One father refuses to believe his son guiltless, while the other, fully realizing the weakness of his son, struggles to save him from further disgrace. In this attempt he exonerates the innocent youth, but at the same time exposes the guilt of his own son.

After all, the young chemist proves himself quite human. He would have ended his life because he had not the money to spend on his desired research for a cancer cure, had not his uncle prevented. The old man became a thief "for science, not personal gain." The young man, however, fell in love with the very girl who was sent to track him, and thus forgot his original intention.

The dead man's decentralized life is exemplified in a half-finished will and an incompleted invention of a printing press. The mother impresses upon her two sons the power of concentration by a magnifying glass held to the sun's rays. One accepts the lesson and finishes the work of the father. The other becomes the tool of the rival printer. His lesson was to come through experience and the suffering of others.

No doubt the old antique dealer was prejudiced against his junior clerk. After frequent shortages, the clerk's visit to the gambling house was reported by the detective and he was discharged. In truth, he had gone to find the senior clerk, who owed him money which he needed for his mother, hovering close to the edge of life. By sharp detective work, the designs of the senior clerk were frustrated.