Florid melodrama of misunderstandings, betrayal and desperation as Theda schemes to keep the title secret.

Wall Street financier Frederick Searles goes bankrupt, prompting his mercenary wife to marry their eldest daughter Needa to the wealthy, disreputable John Davis Warren, despite Needa's love for Hugh Stanton.

Jack Craigen, an engineer who has just finished a construction job in South Africa, returns to New York. There, at the home of his Uncle Cannell, he meets stage-struck society girl Helen Steele and her playwright fiancé Tracey. Scheming to win the lead in their new production, The Siren , Helen wagers Cannell and Tracey that she can vamp Jack--a notorious woman-hater--and have him propose to her in a week.

This picture deals with the fates of Gaston Beauvais, an aristocratic young banker of Paris, and Pauline de Chauvilles, his fiancée. Beauvais discovers that Sylvion, his best friend, has long carried on a clandestine love affair with Pauline. An artist acquaintance urges Gaston to comfort himself with absinthe. Gaston in his despair yields. From that moment the wreck of his career begins. Maddened by absinthe, he denounces Pauline at the marriage-altar on his wedding day, as Sylvion's cast-off mistress. Still driven by absinthe, he murders Sylvion and ultimately his brutalities drives Pauline, now a pitiful outcast of the streets, for she fled her home in shame after Gaston cast her off, to end her pathetic existence in the dark waters of the Seine.

When Marcel, a waif, saves master crook Burke from the police, Burke adopts the youngster and teaches him his profession. Years later, Marcel has become a master crook himself, working under the name of Michael Lanyard. His clever work baffles the Paris police, who dub him "The Lone Wolf". The Pack, a gang of criminals, notifies The Wolf that unless he joins them, he is marked for destruction. Lucy, an undercover agent masquerading as a crook to expose the gang, helps The Wolf escape. This inaugurates a series of adventures in which Lucy and The Wolf are pursued by the gang, finally making their escape to England by plane. The Pack follows, only to meet their death in a plane crash. Liberated from his tormentors, The Wolf vows to go straight and marries Lucy.

While playing cards, Col. Francis Fielding is unjustly accused of cheating by the Earl of St. Albans. The charges are considered so serious in that strata of society that Fielding is disowned by his parents and held in contempt by "proper" society. Fleeing to Paris, Fielding marries and fathers a baby daughter he names Leonore. His wife soon dies and he is forced to raise the girl on his own, alone and broke. He soon dies, and Leonore is adopted by his sister Lady Mountstephen, but it's not much of an improvement: the "lady" hates Leonore, treats her badly and finally disowns her. Things look grim for Leonore until Lord Fitzmaurice loans her a sum of money. Unfortunately, that deed arouses the anger of the wildly jealous Lady Norton, who is secretly married to him. Complications ensue.

World War I, October 1918. The more than 500 men of the 77th Infantry Division of the United States Army, who have been recruited in New York City and trained in Yaphank, are sent to France, to help break down the German defenses located in the Argonne forest…

Stephen Browning, a minister in a small city, is unable to cope with the strong opposition in his parish, which is fostered and led by Raphael Creeke, his rival for the love of Irene Manton.

Gennaro, the son of Lucretia Borgia, lives unaware of the identity of his mother, who has married the Duke of Ferrara. After Lucretia's brother is killed by five conspirators, the fathers of Gennaro's dearest friends, Lucretia tortures the old men to death. Later, Gennaro and his companions journey to Lucretia's domain, and she sees her son for the first time. The Duke, who believes him to be her lover, poisons him, but Lucretia administers the antidote in time and saves his life. Then she schemes to poison her sons' five friends for their fathers' mistake.