Mabel Mack's mother is deserted by her father and the mother dies. All that Mabel retains of her family history is a group photograph of her father, mother and herself, in a locket which she always wears.

Sierra Jim, wounded and desperate, flees from the sheriff and is given refuge in the cabin of a young girl, the sweetheart of the pony express rider.

Laura Bell runs away from her country home to the city, where she becomes a clerk in a department store. Her brother, Frank, follows her to New York, but is unable to place her. He becomes interested in a settlement house and obtains a position in social service work. Mary Ashton, daughter of the proprietor of the store where Laura works, is shocked to find that her father pays his clerks starvation wages.

The son falls in love with his millionaire father's stenographer, against the parental wishes. To get rid of her influence over Wallace, Burton, Sr., discharges Madge. But the young man follows her and they are married. By so doing he separates himself from his father altogether.

Slim Cole, a notorious outlaw, shoots at mining executive Jim King, missing him but wounding Flora Dale in the shoulder. Jim takes care of the injured girl, who, when she recovers, goes to work in his office. Unknown to Jim, Flora is the daughter of an outlaw whom Cole had killed and has secretly vowed revenge against Jim.

Louise (Pickford) is a sewing-machine girl in a sweatshop in New York City. She lives together with her sisters Amy (Loretta Blake) and Jane (Dorothy West) and are all deprived by bad conditions at work and sickness. Louise tries for the three of them to survive and regards herself as the keeper of her sisters. Meanwhile, she stands up to her bosses and complains about the dreadful circumstances they work in. When Amy is seduced by the son of the shop-owner, Louise butts in and stops the romance. He eventually abandons Amy and becomes seriously injured in a cave-in. Louise has a secret crush on the son herself and tries to rescue him, hoping he will admit he loves her. The film is inspired by the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, which took place in 1911. The only version of the film is a nitrate print in the Cinematheque Francaise, but only the first half remains.

Francelia Billington and Dorothy Gish battle outlaw Ralph Lewis out on the range with assistance from ranch foreman Donald Crisp.

The ranchman's daughter is in love with Jack of the Rancho and becomes engaged to him, but Pa comes on their lovemaking and rudely separates them. Following an idea which he worked on during a visit to New York, Pa writes to a Frenchman, a lawyer there, and tells him he will marry his daughter to a count the lawyer will provide. The lawyer accordingly looks up an Italian cook, decks him out with a red sash, etc., and sends him west for the easy money.

On the eve of her elopement with Henry Traquair, Margaret Fielding is accidentally discovered in Traquair's apartments by his friends, Captain Richard Haynes and Walter Maxwell.....

Young Nan was rescued from a shipwreck by a man who becomes her foster father. Years later, when he dies, she moves to a nearby city and unknowingly gets involved with a criminal gang. When the gang attempts and fails to rob wealthy Thomas Carter's home, Nan finally discovers what they are and tells the police all she knows, resulting in the imprisonment of Bad Riley, the gang's leader. Grateful, the Carter family takes Nan into their home, to replace a young daughter who had drowned years before, and the young son, Rev. Robert Carter, begins a romance with her. However, the jailed Riley soon escapes and comes after Nan.