Acting
The story of a poor young woman, separated by prejudice from her husband and baby, is interwoven with tales of intolerance from throughout history.
The young lover leaving home at the opening of the war to join the Confederate Army, tells his brother to take care of his fatherless sweetheart during the perilous times which are to follow. But the brother weakens and fails to be true to his trust. He permits her to believe that her lover is dead. Caught in the neighborhood, however, between the lines of the enemy, the brother appears before them at the crucial moment. In retaliation the false brother turns informer. Both forces are aroused to arms and during the attack upon the girl defending her wounded lover and family alone in the negro's cabin retribution comes in the form of a stray bullet.
Roy Norris, a young author, proposes to pretty Mary Ford and is accepted. The first year or more of their married life is one of bliss, made all the sweeter by the arrival of their first-born. The little trio, father, mother, baby, are bound together by love, until unreasonable jealousy possesses the young couple. While at work in his studio, the young author is visited by his wife just as he is complimenting his stenographer on her valuable aid, and from this the wife sees grounds tor suspicion. On the other hand, the young husband, seeing his wife talking to a stranger, becomes suspicious.
Two young girls are sent away to live with their uncle, which sets off a chain of events resulting in an Indian attack on the town.
Agnes, a singer in a country church, is practicing one day when a vaudeville manager hears her and offers her a job. Over the objections of the curate who loves her, she accepts the offer and goes to the city. Later the curate goes to hear Agnes perform and, fearing that her soul is being corrupted by show business, he asks her to return to the small town with him. When she refuses, he is prepared to kill her in order to protect the purity of her soul. This brings about her change of heart, and together they return to the little church.
During the American Revolution, a young soldier carrying a crucial message to General Washington is spotted and pursued by a group of enemy soldiers. He takes refuge with a civilian family, but is soon detected. The family and their neighbors must then make plans to see that the important message gets through after all.
Wild flapper Patricia Van Nuys decides to become a pilot like her husband Robert, but with a difference--she wants to become the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean by airplane. Capt. Endicott, a friend of Robert's, offers to teach her how to fly. One day while aloft in the plane, the craft takes a sudden nosedive and crashes. The pair walk away uninjured and find shelter in a roadhouse. Robert, upon hearing of this, becomes jealous of Pat's spending so much time with Endicott, which angers Pat. She decides to leave Robert and slips out of the house to catch an evening train, but unfortunately, Endicott is also aboard the train. Robert finds out about that, too. Complications ensue.
A girl's family suddenly becomes rich and rejects her long-time sweetheart.
The Parson and his friend Pete, a worthless inebriate of the village, in a drunken sleep by the roadside. His cure has been tried often, but in vain. The Parson's friend suggests a novel scheme, that of taking him to his home, waking him there and make him believe he is in paradise; then feeding him wine until he is asleep again, placing him back in the same place in the road. The scheme worked to perfection and it looks as if the village saloon will get no more of Pete's money for drink.
Club pianist Ted Mason writes a love song for Beth Barton. A rival named Goldie steals the song for her husband, Steve, to publish. Beth faces unfair blame from her friends and teacher because of the popular song. Ted proves he wrote it by creating an even better song, exposing the theft, and winning Beth back.
An anonymous donor drops a gold coin in the shoe of a homeless girl as she sleeps. A gambler with a 'sure thing' borrows the coin and wins a fortune, but he can't find her again to repay her.
Susan, a pretty society girl, bored with her lot in life, reads and decides to use her time and money to help the poor. She founds the Joan of Arc Mission and quickly becomes an easy mark for con men.
Mary Rollins is torn between selfish depravity and righteous living. After she's coerced into helping with the burglary of her minister's apartment, she comes face to face with her misdeeds.
A naïve country girl is tricked into a sham marriage by a wealthy womanizer, then must rebuild her life despite the taint of having borne a child out of wedlock.
Count Ferdinand, a submarine commander and secret pacifist refuses to torpedo a defenseless passenger ship during wartime. His submarine is sunk in the following fracas. In the spirit world, Christ commends the captain, and returns to earth in the commander's body to promote His message of peace.
In China, before leaving for America, Charlie Lee promises that he will never dishonour his family by cutting his pigtail. Later, as a laundryman in a California mining town, Charlie is tormented by local men but is finally befriended by a young woman and her cowboy sweetheart. One of Charlie’s tormentors is a well-dressed idler and, secretly, a bandit who robs the mail. The cowboy and the bandit become rivals for the girl’s affections. Suspicious of the bandit, Charlie follows him, observes him robbing a mail-carrier, and contrives to capture him, cutting off his pigtail to bind the bandit. Rewarded for the bandit’s capture, but disgraced in his own eyes for dishonouring his family, Charlie gives the cash reward to the young couple and surreptitiously leaves Golden Gulch.
In Camarillo, principality of the Spanish dominion, there lived two brothers, Jose and Manuel. Born in a noble Spanish family and reared by a mother noble in both station and character, they were vastly different morally. Jose was a dutiful son and upright young man, while Manuel was the black sheep. It was on Easter Sunday morning during the processional that Manuel appears in an intoxicated condition and foully ridicules the priests and acolytes as they enter the chapel of the old mission. At this the mother's pride is hurt beyond endurance and she exiles her profligate son from her forever. Manuel is shunned as a viper and while making his way along the road, meets Pedro, the notorious political outlaw, who sympathizes with him and offers him inducements to join him, and so takes him to his camp. Meanwhile, Jose woos and wins the Red Rose of Capistran and the day for the wedding is set.
Jose becomes engaged to Pepita, but still has eyes for Mariana. He runs off with Mariana, but he is accidentally blinded, and she deserts him. Pepita discovers him wandering blindly, and forgives him.
D.W. Griffith short intercuts two different stories before mixing them together at the end. The film focuses on a telephone girl who leaves work for her lunch break at the same time as "The Lady" goes to a jewelry store to pick up some priceless jewels. When the telephone girl returns to work she gets a phone call from the house of "The Lady" as a robber has broken in and is trying to steal the jewels.
A nostalgic look at film clips from the Silent era.
