Acting
Hiram Ward, a cynical businessman, is having trouble with his employees when Caroline Weatherbee arrives and claims to be a distant relative. Her natural charm brings about a peaceful settlement of a strike, but she returns to her southern home for fear of bringing scandal to Hiram.
Dave Martin, receiving teller in a Wall Street bank, marries Adele, secretary to the office manager, Frederick Vibart, who visits their home and shows continued interest in her. When a loss of $50,000 is discovered at the bank, Dave comes under suspicion and is arrested and convicted.
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.
Wealthy French lawyer Louis Martinot must travel away on business. He entrusts his friend, Paul Blythe, with a delicate task: to investigate the background of a young woman named Susanne Bergomat. If Paul deems her family suitable, he is authorized to propose marriage to her on Louis’s behalf. However, upon meeting Susanne, Paul immediately falls in love with her himself. To secure her for his own, Paul concocts a lie, telling Louis that Susanne's family is unsuitable because her mother is insane. Paul then proposes to Susanne directly and is accepted. The "villainous" deception eventually unravels, leading to a series of comedic complications as the truth about Paul's lies comes to light.
Sue Graham is a small town girl who wants to be a motion picture star. She wins a contract when a picture of a very pretty girl is sent to a studio instead of her picture. When she arrives in Hollywood, the mistake is discovered and she starts working in the props department of the studio instead. Her parents then come out to California and invest some money with a very shifty individual.
Following a series of misunderstandings, wealthy young aristocrat Gerry Lansing deserts his wife Alix, whom he believes has eloped with his friend Alan Wayne. He sails for South America, leaving no trace of his whereabouts. In Peru, he becomes a plantation owner and marries local girl Margarita.
The solution to a murder hinges on two witnesses: a deaf woman and a blind man.
Young Herbert Thompson, wanting to attain wealth and social status, marries Ann Morton, who comes from a rich and prominent family, throwing over pretty young Angelina Kilboure, who really loves him. Years later Herbert has become the local District Attorney and has two children, Bert and Virginia. One night Bert, a patron at a seedy roadhouse, defends his sister's honor from a ruffian and winds up killing the man. Angelina persuades Herbert to leave his post as D.A. to defend his son in his murder trial. Herbert wins the case, but it turns out to have unexpected consequences.
Claire Endicott throws a wild party and her father walks in to find her flirting with the very married Milt Bisnet. In an attempt to straighten her out, Endicott sends Claire to the Canadian northwoods, where his field engineer, Grimshaw, is working. While fishing, Claire is swept over the rapids and Grimshaw tries to rescue her. Both of them wind up in a remote gorge, and Grimshaw goes about building a hut as a shelter.
John Middleton is distressed to learn that his family is taking in an orphan girl named Mary. He turns aside all her attempts to befriend him. But with the passage of time, John discovers (long after everyone else has) that he loves Mary. But by now it's too late. She plans to marry his friend Willie.
Eileen O'Hara lives as a member of a cult in a remote retreat in the Adirondacks with her father, an embittered man since his wife's infidelity years earlier. Because his wife was untrue, O'Hara is determined that his daughter, Eileen, shall never marry. Peyster Sproul was the man who had the affair Mrs. O'Hara's infidelity, and when he shows up as president of the Sagamore Club and attempts to buy O'Hara's land, the two men come to blows.
Jack La Salle marries South American heiress Blanquetta Del Castillo, and the two settle into a happy life in New York City. Following the birth of their son, Jack, Jr., however, Jack becomes involved in an affair with the notorious Josie Sabel and thereafter ignores his wife. Outraged upon learning that Jack has taken their son to Josie's apartment, Blanquetta files for divorce, the court finally ruling that the boy must live with each parent for a portion of the year. As the time of little Jack's departure from his father approaches, Jack, Sr. declares that he will never return the boy to his mother, whereupon the tortured Blanquetta shoots and kills her faithless husband.
Ignoring the advice of her husband, a mother indulges her son's every wish and demand all throughout his childhood. By the time she realizes her treatment of her son has spoiled him almost beyond belief, he is on trial for manslaughter.
The Westbrook family has been ruined financially, and when the daughter Lucille comes home from boarding school, she finds herself in a terrible dilemma -- she either must marry a rich man she does not love and save her family's fortune, or marry the man she loves and lose everything.
Forced into a loveless marriage by her mother, Joan Coolidge, a beautiful American girl, finds her husband a brute. She runs away to Paris and studies dancing and becomes The Rage of Paris.
Innocent country boy Tom Logan is taken in by the scheming Barbara Kay, a city woman who knows Tom is set to inherit his fathers farm which sits on a rich coal field. Toms father sees through her plot and disinherits him when her marries Barbara. When Barbara tires of farm life, the ensuing events lead to death and misplaced guilt.
Claire Howard, neglected by her husband, Austin, succumbs to the attentions of Austin's business partner, John Reeves, to the dismay of Alice Loring, her sister. When Claire ignores Alice's advice to end the affair, Alice goes to Reeves hoping to reason with him.
