News is received by Sir Jeoffrey, a dissolute roué, whose contempt for the other sex extends even to his own daughters, of the arrival of another female child in the family. The mother dies shortly after, and the child, Clorinda, is brought up among the servants without a guiding hand. True to his vow to ignore his offspring, Sir Jeoffrey does not come in contact with Clo, until her sixth year, when he finds her playing with his powder horn in the great hall of his castle, Wildair, and sternly upbraids her.

Bored by her country life and misunderstood by her parents, Emma Rolfe marries Dr. Charles Bovar, an older man whose dedication to his medical practice results in wifely neglect. To alleviate her growing loneliness, Emma enjoys the company of many of the young men from the village and eventually begins an affair with Rudolph Bulwer.

In this rambunctious comedy, desperately job-needy Billie becomes "Bridget" to answer a "female wanted" ad for a housekeeper. Unfortunately, s/he is all thumbs, wreaking household havoc in no time.

Christabel Nuneham (Gladys Hanson) feels neglected by her husband, Phil (Ferdinand Tidmarsh), so she has an affair with Rex Allen (Jack Standing). When Allen has to go to India, Christabel follows him to Southampton to see him off. She is injured in a car accident and is rescued by an evangelist (George Soule Spencer) whose specialty is saving sinners.

Boardinghouse servant Adele Clark is unexpectedly awarded the ownership of a certain piece of New York City property known as Clark's Field. The trustees send her to a finishing school, whose headmistress, Signorina Vitale, persuades Adele and her sweetheart, Tim Sullivan, that she should travel in Europe. Adele's new riches cause her to lose her sense of proportion, and she soon is involved with a fast set indulging in the jazz life. Even Tim cannot curb Adele's extravagance, and he returns to America while Adele marries Italian fortune-hunter Prince Arnolfo Da Pescia. When a will is discovered naming Tim as the rightful heir to Clark's Field, Adele and Arnolfo hurry to New York, and Arnolfo tries to steal the will, then dies in a hotel fire.

The ninth chapter in the Patsy Bolivar series

The Russian Czar sends his trusted confidant, Michael Strogoff, to warn his brother the Grand Duke of a Tartar rebellion that will be led by Feofar Khan and Ivan Ogareff. Calling himself Nicholas Korpanoff, Strogoff poses as a trader to journey to warn the Grand Duke. On his way he meets Nadia Fedorova, a young girl trying to join her father Wassili, a political activist who has been exiled to Siberia. Strogoff is captured by the Tartars, who don't believe he is a trader and threaten to torture Strogoff's mother Marfa unless he reveals his true identity.

A young American broker at large in London.

Madame Vavin dies alone in a small French village without knowledge of her second marriage in England known to anyone. Consequentially her first husband James Fullerton and his tyrannical sister Cornelia take custody of her young daughter Dora. The puritanical pair take Dora to America but disapprove of her spirited nature especially when Dora decides upon a theatrical career. On stage, Dora meets and falls in love with playwright Willard Holcomb, but the fears implanted by Fullerton and his sister make Dora incapable of romantic commitment. As she despairs of her fate, Professor Vavin, who has spent years searching for Dora, discovers his daughter and explains there is nothing to fear from love. Her confidence thus restored, Dora can continue with her life.

The world's finest ruby was stolen from the bride of Prince Kassim's great-grandfather several generations ago in India by a marauding rajah. It's now several decades later and the British have conquered India, and one day the ruby shows up for sale by a wealthy London jeweler, Sir John Garnett. Garnett has his own problems--there have been a rash of thefts of his wife's jewels, and he hires a private detective named James Brett to investigate.