Rosalie Lane's sister dies from overwork at the Treadwell mills. Asking the company for enough money to bury her sister she is denied leading to desperate measures on her part. After many struggles she can save herself from a life of squalor and find happiness.

Neglected by her workaholic husband Jack, Eileen Spencer begins an affair with novelist Carter Ballantyne. Their planned elopement is halted when Eileen learns that Jack has lost both his money and his eyesight, and she feels compelled to return to care for him. With her friend Dolly Page, Eileen cheats at cards amassing a fortune to send Jack to France for treatment. Carter reappears, threatening to expose her unless she submits to him. Intending merely to reason with Carter, Eileen gives him a key to her apartment, but Jack returns home unexpectedly and finds him there. At her birthday dinner, Eileen, in anticipation of Carter's plan to expose her publicly, confesses her guilt, whereas her husband and her friends forgive her.

Barbara Rand is blinded when she leaps through a window to escape an assailant. Her sister, Natalie, reluctantly abandons her fiancé, Ned Gardiner, and marries Oliver Landis, who can provide the money needed for Barbara's operation. Unaware that Oliver was Barbara's attacker, Natalie blames his business partner, Howard Pollard, who was with Barbara on the night she was injured. Natalie holds Howard at gunpoint, but when her husband arrives, he promises to deal with the villain making sure Howard falls to his death. Upon Barbara’s release from the hospital, Oliver tries to blind her once. Natalie threatens him with a pistol, but Oliver wrests it away from her. He then realizes that he can no longer hide his guilt from Natalie or the police and shoots himself. Barbara has been avenged, and Natalie is free to marry Ned.

Captain Markham charters the boat of the evil Captain Blackton to search for a treasure he once buried on a South Sea island. Accompanying him are his daughter, Lois, and first mate Steve Maitland. They arrive at the island in time to witness a native ceremony of choosing the Fire Bride for sacrifice to the gods. Blackton accompanies Markham to the island to search for the gold, kills him when they find it, and reports to Lois and Steve that they were attacked by natives. Blackton goes ashore to bury Markham but incurs the natives' wrath when he dishonors Atel, the Fire Bride. Steve warns Blackton but, when he learns that the villain caused the death of his sister, helps the natives subdue him.