Finding himself penniless, Lawrence Ashmore, whose late father was ruined on the stock exchange, obtains a position as a reporter. Ashmore is assigned to investigate the reported fatal illness of Jesse Craven, one of Wall Street's financial monarchs.

In the gray dawn of an October day, as the inhabitants of a village street in Tripoli are engaged in the enjoyment of their several pursuits of life, an Arab rushes upon the peaceful scene, announcing that Italy has declared war against Turkey and that the Italian warships are now in the harbor, shelling the city.

At the outbreak of the Civil War in the United States, the six sons of widow Beecham enlist. The seventh son is very anxious to join the army and fight for his country, but his brothers insist upon his remaining home with his mother.

Haywood, a suitor for the hand of Elida Rumsey, is severely reprimanded by her for not enlisting when President Lincoln calls for volunteers. Being deeply interested in the cause, Elida goes and helps Mrs. Pomeroy minister to sick and wounded soldiers. She becomes a favorite with the men, for she frequently sings to them. This attracts the attention of Lincoln

A young woman does strange things, which are explained when it is discovered she is a sleep walker.

Mrs. Pearson is a little different from most mothers, at least in her general appearance, for she has that sweetness and calmness of disposition, which is characteristic of the Quakeress. Lois, her only child, does not inherit her mother's sedate and quiet temperament, apparently she is no different from other girls, quite natural, and does not object to the attentions paid her by John Harmon, who is very much in love with her.

Patience and Anne, two spinsters of the old school of aristocratic birth, have managed to keep up appearances under very trying conditions and with limited means, until they are reduced to such circumstances they are obliged to sell their household furnishing, of antique pattern, to raise the necessary "wherewithal" to live and pay the mortgage off the old home.

Far up in the mountains Mrs. Bailor's two sons, Tom and Harry, are engaged at their distilling, constantly in fear of being pursued by the revenue officers, and arrested as moonshiners.

More a cautionary moral tale than anything else, Conscience makes use of a setting that was to become a horror movie favourite: the chamber of horrors. Persuaded to elope by her lover Eric, Eleanor Donelly defies her police officer brother to go to New York, where the young couple are married. Soon deserted by Eric and desperate for food for her baby, Eleanor tries to steal a bottle of milk. Fleeing in terror from a policeman, she takes refuge in a chamber of horrors. Coincidentally, fallen among disreputable companions, Eric has meanwhile accepted a wager daring him to spend a night in the same chamber of horrors. In the morning, seeing Eleanor in the shadows as she wakes and rises, Eric dies of fright while Eleanor goes mad.

Crook Dave Darcy gets reformed by working in a steel mill owned by someone who witnessed his crime.