While working his way through college, Paul Potter acquires a flock of wealthy friends who encourage him to give up his hometown fiancée, Sylvia Castle, for Muriel Evers, a flirtatious married woman. After Sylvia releases Paul, and Muriel's husband divorces her for infidelity, Paul and Muriel marry. Meanwhile, when Sylvia's father dies after being ruined in the stock market, she goes from one job to another in the city until she tries acting in a stock company. There she befriends Henry Leamington, an alcoholic leading man, who, as he tutors her, falls in love and stops drinking because of her. When Paul discovers Muriel's unfaithfulness, he renews his acquaintance with Sylvia, who still loves him.

In pre-Civil War days, a woman dies in childbirth. Her sister, believing the child to be illegitimate, leaves the baby in the care of one of her sister's slaves.

Bill Evers, a gambling house keeper, is in reality the "Desert Scourge," an outlaw.

Widower Calvert Paige leaves his baby daughter Johnnie in New York and goes West where he becomes wealthy as a mine owner and newspaperman. Lil Magill, who came to work on his newspaper, becomes infatuated with Paige, as he is with her, and they become lovers. After several years Lil has become a successful author but Paige has tired of her. Their estrangement grows when Lil takes the side of striking miners against him.

First movie in the Lord John's Journal series. Detective novel author and war hero Lord John solves a mystery.

"Dad" is the manager of the telegraph room of the Kripps News Service, and for forty years has rendered them invaluable service. Everyone, from Moss, the resident manager, down to the office boy, fairly swears by Dad. A new general manager, Harrison Cole, is engaged and starts out on a tour of inspection of the various branches.

Impoverished Molly Hanlon is befriended by crooked gambler Lee Kirk, she marries him in a phony ceremony. While frequenting Kirk's gambling den, Molly meets Miles Rand, the dissolute son of Judge Rand, whose obvious attraction for her encourages Kirk to swindle him out of his money. Penniless, Miles accepts a loan from Molly and returns East to study law. On the day that Molly learns that her marriage is not legal, the gambling den burns down and Kirk is presumed dead. After escaping with Kirk's money, Molly goes East where she encounters Miles, now a district attorney. In spite of the objections of Judge Rand, Molly accepts Miles's proposal, but after Kirk arrives in town, she calls off the engagement. When Kirk enters her apartment through a window, Molly kills him in a panic and is arrested for murder. The still faithful Miles defends her in court, and after her acquittal, she confesses her past and reunites with her old love.

In his will, Mr. Baird leaves his son Arnold just one seven-passenger auto and a hundred dollars to keep it filled up and in good repair. When James Bennett hears of this, he insists that Baird do something to make his fortune before he can marry his daughter Ruth. Bennett begins by using the car to start a jitney-bus line. This is not terribly impressive to Bennett -- who owns a trolley company -- and he decides he would rather see Ruth married to his controller, William Mott-Smith.

A senator fights for the passage of a war-preparedness bill, while foreign spies conspire to plan an invasion.

Lord John, a detective novelist and the Marquis of Haslemere's brother, receives word that the stage adaption of one of his stories will not be performed because Roger Odell, a millionaire, has spoken against him. After tracking him down, Lord John joins his foe on an ocean steamer along with Grace Callender, an heiress, and Dr. Rameses, a hypnotist and Egyptian cultist. While the evil Dr. Rameses tries to steal a gold-filled mummy from Maida, Odell's adopted sister, Lord John confronts Odell, who reveals that his anger stems from a disservice that the Marquis once committed against Maida.