Tomboy Nita, a vegetable seller in a small Californian town, believes herself to be the daughter of poor ranch workers, but she is actually the daughter of Clara Hawkins, a wealthy neighbour who was stolen at birth and presumed dead. (NFA Catalogue)

Mary Miles Minter is Sylvia, the niece of a man who leaves her a fortune. The money is in the hands of his lawyer, Baxter, who uses it to support his ambitious wife and daughter. Sylvia comes to Baxter's home and it's obvious she's not wanted there. Arnold, Baxter's son, is wasting his life away with drinking and nightclubbing, but Sylvia sweetly influences him to straighten up.

Sue Gordon, a mountain girl on the Tennessee side of the Cumberlands, lives with her grandmother. When "Granny" dies, Sue--fulfilling Granny's dying wish--goes to Chicago to live with John Peyton, an industrialist who was at one time Sue's mother's fiancé. She finds that Peyton's employees are on strike, and one of the strike's leaders is Peyton's son, Donald, to whom she is becoming increasingly attracted. Complications ensue.

Detective Martin Gale, tough with criminals but awkward with women, secretly loves Dorothy Baird, a clever operative at the agency he manages. He gives her a small revolver engraved with his name as a token. Dorothy is assigned to cover a party for a society debutante, where she meets James Vallon, a popular and wealthy young man, and they are attracted to each other. While he flirts with her a valuable necklace goes missing and as Dorothy digs deeper into the incident she begins to suspect Vallon is involved.

Ralph Cullom is in love with Lucy Bronson and she loves him, but her mother wants him to marry a title. Earl Twombley arrives in America on a business mission. He brings letters of introduction to Mrs. Belknap, Lucy's aunt. Lucy's mother sees an opportunity to arrange a union between Lucy and the Earl.

Purity, a simple country girl, comes to the city and is hired as an artist's model. A young poet becomes obsessed with her, and is distraught when he learns she has been posing nude. But his distress is diminished when he finds that she intends to use her income from modelling to publish his poetry.

Dulcie's once-aristocratic Southern family has fallen upon hard times, so her Aunt Netta decides to take her to California in search of a millionaire husband. While Dulcie pines for Harry, her sweetheart back home, Netta triumphantly arranges an engagement with a wealthy suitor. On her wedding day, preparing to sacrifice herself for her family, Dulcie discovers that her fiance's millions actually belong to other people when he is arrested at the altar on a bank robbing charge. Meanwhile, Harry, who has come West to get Dulcie back, arrives at the wedding just as the police interrupt it. He volunteers to take the arrested fiance's place, and Dulcie accepts his offer instantly.

Henry Sanford, contracted to build a lighthouse at Keyport, is attracted to Kate, the wife of wealthy Morgan Leroy, who becomes jealous of Henry.

Millionaire John Huntley-Knox, the owner of the Boston Star, fights political corruption with the aid of William Wendell, the reform district attorney.