John Lane is a prosperous businessman, a widower, who lives in a large house with his seven-year-old daughter Betty. Lane has an enemy, one Ben Hartley, who, by the aid of some forged papers, threatens to expose Lane and put him in prison. The night of the story opens with Lane receiving a letter from Hartley, who demands $10,000, to be paid at midnight, that night. Lane has not that much ready money in the house, and no way to get it. He thinks it all out and decides to commit suicide. He stands before a mirror and is about to pull the trigger, when Bill, the burglar, steps into the room, stopping him.

Etta Lang, a chorus girl, is the principal support of an invalid mother and her sister and brother, not only working at the theater, but looking after their small boarding house. Among their lodgers is Brutus Bellamy, an old actor. He becomes interested in the girl, and offers to teach her acting. She learns rapidly. She arrives at the theater late and is abused by the stage manager, Joseph Burton. Cecil Wentworth, one of the backers of the theater, takes her part and becomes interested in her.

An exceptionally capable girl, Trixie Joyce, proves a great help, to her mother, a widow with a large family of girls. They receive a proposition from Henrietta Joyce, Mrs. Joyce's wealthy sister-in-law, to take Trixie as a companion, feed and clothe her and in place of wages, send her mother an allowance sufficient to support the rest of the family. Both realize it is the solution of a hard problem, and Trixie accepts the offer. Henrietta is close-fisted and selfish in money matters, but she also has a strain of morbidly-romantic sentiment in her nature, so the largest part of Trixie's work is reading aloud to her mistress quantities of swashbuckling, mid-Victorian novels.

As childhood sweethearts, David Horton and Beatrice Elton are inseparable. Fifteen years later Beatrice goes abroad and while there is heartbroken to learn that David has married Margaret Forsythe, a social climber, Margaret starts to entertain on a lavish scale.

Jovial and big-hearted, Jim Brice, of the Howard Detective Agency, is sent to trap bribetakers in a nearby city.

Herr Ludwig Kronitz is a king in his own works and rules with a controlling hand. He is known as the "Man of Iron." He has made a fortune out of the manufacture of guns, and is hard and unscrupulous.

To avoid ruin, an impoverished count arranges a marriage between his daughter and a wealthy man she does not love. After an accident, she is taken in by a gifted artist who saves her from an unseemly fate.

In 1635, Jacques du Parquet, the nephew of the well known explorer Belain d'Esnambic, enters a tavern in Dieppe, and falls in love with the daughter of the bartender, Marie Bonnard. He knows his noble family would disapprove such a marriage; besides, he is nominated for the post of governor in Martinica. He promised never to forget Marie, but as time goes by, she will accept to marry a rich and unscrupulous man, Monsieur de Saint-André. When her husband is appointed to serve in Martinica as General Commissioner, Marie demands to go with him. At her arrival, all sorts of trouble arrive: pirates take action against travelers and goods, rotten deals set the two officers against each other, and finally jealousy settles to make things worse.

Jacques Mervel, also known as "L'Homme de la Jamaïque" makes use of his talents as a gun runner in Tangiers, Morocco. After triumphing over a rival gang, he decides to quit the job and to start a new life with Vicky, a pretty young nurse. In Paris, a doctor lets him know that he is affected by leprosy. In desperation, Jacques runs away from Vicky to spare her. When she realizes the reason why Jacques has disappeared from her life, she joins him with a view to helping him fight the disease.

Returning home from a matinee, Ralph Brent, a poor actor, finds his step-child dead. The child's mother returns intoxicated, having purchased drink instead of medicine for the child, with the money he had given her. He accuses her of causing the little one's death, and snatching the bottle of liquor from which she is about to drink, throws it away. Infuriated, she springs at her husband with a bread knife, stumbles and accidentally kills herself. Fearing that he will be suspected of murder. Brent hastily makes up in the disguise of an old man and leaves the house.