Acting
Robert Ware takes it upon himself to tame wild girl, Mag, to prove to his doubting friend Arnold, he can turn her into a graceful young lady. Later, when Arnold is in the war, he meets a pretty nurse who greatly impresses him. Back home he recalls the pleasant encounter to Robert, telling him of the gentle beauty he never forgot. Mag, now Margaret, overhears the story and reveals to Arnold, she was the nurse. The surprised Arnold now has to admit that Robert was right about gentling the little wild cat.
Joe Regan, a kindly traffic cop, comes home with presents for Jerry Murphy, his young ward, and discovers that the boy has been hit by a car. The doctors advise a sea cure, and Joe takes Jerry to a seaside resort, where they meet Alicia Davidson.
Against the wishes of Doctor Neighbor, the guardian who also loves her, Hazel, who is due to inherit a fortune when she turns 21, marries district attorney Hamilton Rogers, a man more devoted to Hazel's future bank account than to her.
After his mining partner Joe Pelton's death, wealthy bachelor Richard Chester adopts Joe's five young children and takes them East by train. The children are hellions upsetting the calm of the Pullman car en route to New York City, and his home upon arrival. Richard enrolls them all in school except for the youngest. His frosty society fiancée Ethel McVae refuses to have anything to do with the children. After seeing how Richard interacts with his stenographer Sally Lockwood when she helps him nurse the youngest child through a night's illness Ethel breaks the engagement. Richard declares his love for Sally, and they join to raise a family.
Planning on sailing his schooner, the Laughing Lass, to his ancestors' treasure island in the South Seas, veteran seaman Obadiah Wolf makes his last payment on the vessel to Ellory Glendenning, a crook who hopes to cheat the old man out of the boat and then sell it to the government at an outrageous price. Learning that Obadiah has a treasure map tattooed on his chest, a pirate called "Bad-Eye" forces the old buccaneer to accompany him to the island. Meanwhile, Ellory and his son Harold seize the Laughing Lass, ordering Rory O'Malley, who is loved by Obadiah's granddaughter Patricia, to sail it to the South Seas so that Harold may evade the draft.
While traveling through India with her Aunt Eva, Arlee Eversham meets Billy Hill, an American, and Captain Falconer, a British officer, both of whom fall in love with her. Curiosity leads Arlee to accept an invitation from the Rajah of the province to visit his palace. Aunt Eva receives a letter of invitation intended for her niece and, thinking that it is for herself, goes to the palace. Once there, both women are held prisoners, destined to become members of the Rajah's harem, until Arlee manages to send word to Billy of her predicament. Accompanied by Captain Falconer, Billy leads a successful rescue in which he saves Arlee, and the Captain discovers, much to his consternation, that he has rescued Aunt Eva.
Recent immigrants August and Hilda cannot understand the American emphasis on weddings, because in their country, couples never get married. Fearing that he will be arrested for living with a woman who is not his wife, August stows away on a ship and dies in a wreck at sea. Afterward, Hilda tries to commit suicide, but the wealthy Esther Grail saves her, and then adopts her infant son Stephen. Years later, Esther tells him the circumstances of his birth, and so Stephen goes on a crusade for the rights of illegitimate children.
Wealthy Anne Wilmot vacationing along with her aunt Katherine at her fiancé Leon Morse's (Hull) Arizona mountain lodge discovers his plot to destroy a nearby hydroelectric engineering project in order to obtain the land for his railway. She thwarts the sabotage but find herself in a life and death struggle.
After a prologue that takes place in Hell, young millionaire Mason Van Horton becomes involved with Doria, the vampish wife of influential businessman John Manners. When Mason falls in love with Beverly Hope, however, he rejects Doria, who, out of revenge, tells John that Mason tried to seduce her and then begs her husband to ruin him.
A wealthy young criminologist Marcel Leviget is seen forcibly dragging his fellow clubman Dr. Rogers into a House of Ill Repute. In one of the back bedrooms of the bawdy house, an old friend of Marcel's, a prominent attorney, lies near death. Dr. Rogers is also acquainted with the dying attorney, and while Marcel's back is turned, Rogers discovers a distinctively designed hatpin embedded in the patient's heart.
Jack Trevor, an automobile salesman who takes the place of the recently deceased heir, Horace Barney, after a train crash. Trevor, who has a striking resemblance to Barney, finds himself at the mansion where he falls in love with Barney's cousin and rightful heiress, Helen. He must then expose the fraudulent scheme of Barney's guardian and his accomplices to save the estate and win Helen's love.
Gubernatorial candidate Walter Croyden is in love with Beatrice, but he acts obnoxiously when he drinks, so she flees to Europe to re-evaluate the relationship.
When eccentric Colonel Wynn threatens to kill Joe Benson if he marries his daughter Dorothy, the couple wed secretly. Their honeymoon at a resort is interrupted by Barbara Dow, a friend who threatens to expose the marriage unless Joe announces that Barbara is his wife.
A woman is deserted by her wealthy young lover.
Henry Clive, a wealthy widower, placed his small daughter, May, in a convent when she was a mere child, and now that her education is completed takes her home. Clive, alone, has amused himself according to his fancy, but now that his daughter has come to live with him he decides to reform.
A socialite couple thinks only of themselves. When they become bored with one another, they divorce and marry others (several times). The person who suffers most from their cavalier outlook on life is their cute little daughter Mary Jane Irving.
The story to this comedy-drama is based on the book by Emerson Hough, who was experiencing a surge of popularity because his book The Covered Wagon had recently been made into a hit film. Ranchman Colonel Wright sends his daughter Bonnie to an Eastern college to receive an education. She decides to stay in the city and sends for her father, who arrives with his foreman Curly. Even though they live in the midst of society, they are snubbed by the Easterners as uncouth.
The story of St. Gabriel, who was killed by an ignorant mob for making a nude statue representing Purity, who is also represented by a ghostly naked girl that flits through the film.
The Riggs family, newly wealthy from Oklahoma oil, move to an estate in Ossining, New York, adjoining that of eligible bachelor Stephen Van Courtlandt, who wants to avoid marriage. Mrs. Riggs, anxious to break into society, wants her daughter Barbara to marry Stephen.
Illiterate Blue Ridge Mountain girl Madge Brierly falls in love with vacationing Blue Grass aristocrat Frank Layson, when he stops Horace Holten from defrauding her of her coal-rich lands. For revenge, Holten tells moonshiner Joe Lorey, who loves Madge, that Frank is a revenue officer. After Madge rescues Frank from Joe's attack, they go to Frank's home, where he teaches her reading and writing, and she rescues his racehorse, Queen Bess, from a fire set by Holten. Because Frank has nearly all of his family's money riding on the big Kentucky race, Holten gets Frank's jockey drunk. Madge, discovering this, disguises herself and rides Queen Bess to victory. She leaves for home unnoticed, and comes across the Night Riders chasing Lorey. After she persuades them that Holten killed her father years earlier, and was responsible for Lorey's attack, they chase Holten who falls from a mountain and dies. Years later, Madge's and Frank's children play at feuding.
