Writing
No description available.
Pegeen O'Neill must fend for herself when her father Dan becomes mentally unbalanced after his wife Mary's death. Dan spends his days searching for his wife, setting fires in the belief that the flames will illuminate his Mary. The townspeople, enraged at the arson that is slowly destroying their village, track down Dan and trap him in a burning cabin. Pegeen rushes to comfort her dying father, who consoles himself at death with the hallucination that his wife has returned in the figure of his daughter. Pegeen is then rescued from the raging fire by Jimmie, who proposes to the waif as he delivers her from the flames.
Long Island socialite Billy Kershaw (Niles Welch) is engaged to wealthy Peggy Rice (Ruth Stonehouse), but she prefers to "play the field" with other men. When Billy tires of Peggy's randy behavior and returns to his ex-sweetheart Minette (Edna Murphy), the suddenly possessive Peggy heads to Minette's home, hoping to bribe the girl into giving up the boy. At that very moment, one of Minette's jealous ex-boyfriends breaks into her house, ties and gags the poor girl, and turns on the gas. Library of Congress holds a complete negative.
Camilla Van Dam is in love with her rich father's poor employee, John Hamilton. Van Dam is against their marriage but proposes an arrangement to which Camilla agrees. Van Dam goes abroad with the understanding that she will not marry for a year or reveal her whereabouts to Hamilton. Announcing to the press that she is accompanying her father, Camilla instead gets a job as a chorus girl, takes an apartment, and supports herself. Hamilton finds her and joins in the deception until Van Dam's secretary tries to make off with the fortune on hearing the false rumor of Van Dam's death. Van Dam consents readily to his daughter's marriage when he returns.
Dancer Florence Maddis marries Ross Van Beekman, son of an aristocratic New York family, and despite her friends’ doubts manages to fit into the family. Her scheming mother-in-law disapproves of her however colluding with Ned Ormsby, who wants Flo for himself, to make her appear faithless. When Ross suspects Flo of harboring Ormsby, he fires a pistol at her closet. Later when Ormsby is found shot in his house, Ross confesses, believing himself guilty. Sick at heart, Flo returns to the stage of the Winter Palace. Ross is freed, however, when Ormsby’s enemy, Maddox, confesses to the crime, and Flo is happily reconciled with Ross.
Immediately after the October revolution, in Russia, stir unrest and propaganda against the Government of the United States. Serge Oumansky is a Communist agent trying to organize terrorist actions against the same United States.
Ruth Rogens (Sylvia Breamer) is married to policeman John Rogens (Jack Mower), whose work causes him to neglect her. Her neighbor Adelaide Thomas (Gertrude Astor), the mistress of bootlegger Cyler Bryson (Bruce Gordon),invites her out on a party and loans her a gown. Before long, Cyler, the cad, is buying Ruth fancy clothes and forgets about Adelaide. The latter, in revenge, leads Cyler's wife Grace (Helene Sullivan), to believe that Ruth is her husband's mistress. John makes a raid on the bootlegger's warehouse and finds his wife in Cycler's company at a roadhouse.
In the Latin Quarter of Paris, Mimi earns the nickname "The Mad Dancer" and poses in the nude for a sculptor named Serge Verlaine. After her father commits suicide, Mimi travels to the United States to live with her American relatives. Her new family heavily disapproves of her past and insults her for having posed for Verlaine. Unwilling to tolerate the abuse, she walks out and moves to Washington, D.C. In D.C., Mimi secures a new life and becomes engaged to Keith Arundel, the son of a United States Senator. Her hard-earned respectability is jeopardized when her bohemian past threatens to catch up with her and expose the details of her life in Paris.
Bob Stafford, the wastrel son of a wealthy businessman, is disowned by his father for his reckless and irresponsible ways. He changes his name and opens a gym for wealthy young girls, hoping to land a rich and pretty wife. He meets and falls for pretty young Eileen, but a rival soon drives him out of the gym business. He gets a job in an airplane factory owned by Eileen's father, who is soon told by a rival that Bob is really out to steal a new airplane invention so he can give it to his father.
