Writing
On a desolate beach near a lifesaving station, Ira, the youngest member of the lifeguard crew, rescues a baby girl from a wreck. The child is cared for at the station, where the men christen her Periwinkle. Living near the station are Ephraiam Rawlins and his childless daughter Ann, a widow with maternal longings. Joyously, Ann takes charge of Periwinkle and raises the girl as her own. Grown to adulthood, Periwinkle is the bright spot for the men at the station. One day, Richard Langdon Evans, a dissolute, wealthy young New Yorker, is cast ashore from the wreck of his yacht. Periwinkle, aiding the lifesavers, helps bring him back to life. Her innocent goodness and faith transform Dick from a carousing society ne'er-do-well to a man of noble ambitions. Thus rehabilitated, Dick wins Periwinkle's hand in marriage.
Ezra Hickman, of Kankakee, is a political aspirant. At a reception in Washington with his wife and daughter Amy he meets the Ambassador of Selim Bey, the ruler of a small European kingdom, Vergania. The Ambassador, seeking an American girl for his ruler, paints a glowing picture of Vergania to Hickman's wife, with the result that she persuades her husband to accept the American Consulate at. Vergania. Amy, the daughter, is enamored of Lieutenant Brice of the U.S. Navy, and reluctantly she agrees to leave him and go with her family.
Mary Beth rents an attic room to Richard, a composer. Frustrated with the publishers demands for cheap, trashy songs, Richard, penniless, tries to asphyxiate himself, but Mary intervenes, encouraging him to go on. Mary finds his song, and secretly sells a song she finds of his, "The Rainbow Girl", to a publisher, later finding out that she, herself, is the Rainbow Girl he wrote about.
Julian Randolph, a disreputable lawyer, gains an ad interim appointment to the Supreme bench as a reward for fixing a jury that acquits the brother of the political boss of a charge of murder. He was promised the nomination for the full term at the next election, but gains it only through threat of exposure of a bigamous marriage contracted by the boss. Then comes love for a noble woman and the question whether he shall take defeat with honor or gain seeming honor at the cost of his manhood. It is a momentous problem, but he makes a decision that proves him worthy of the robes of honor.
Jilted on her wedding day, Maud Wainwright becomes a confirmed man-hater. Homesteading in the Southwest, she ignores the attentions of both bandit "Three Gun Smith" and Sheriff Steve Kennedy. When Smith's gang accidentally knocks over Maud's cabin, the men take her to Smith's cabin while they rebuild her dwelling. There, Maud discovers a mail pouch and believing that it was stolen by Smith, reports him to the sheriff, who persuades her to assist him in arresting the bandit. After Smith is captured, Maud discovers papers that prove he is actually a secret service agent and that the sheriff is the real bandit. Riding to Smith's rescue, Maud prevents him from being lynched at the hands of vigilantes and then proclaims her love for him.
Paul is a fearless French Foreign Legion officer. Ordered to quell a native uprising at a far-away outpost, he discovers that the revolt is actually a subterfuge hatched by the Arabs, so that the city under Paul's command will be left unguarded and defenseless.
Dr. Grant, who runs the leper colony, is in love with Myra Hamilton. However, she marries Harry Elliot a man Grant warns her against. Myra and Harry visit Grant's laboratory, where she witnesses a vivisection experiment. The film explores the emotional conflicts arising from this situation.
Wealthy Mrs. John Grant Nottingham instructs her attorney to find an ugly girl to whom she will bequeath her millions, in order to spite her scheming daughter-in-law Emily Nottingham. The lawyer discovers Annie Johnson, a homely orphan who lives in a tenement, caring for Mrs. Cadogan's six children at night and working in a department store during the day. Annie is accepted by Mrs. Nottingham as her sole heir, and she soon wins the old woman's affection. Because of her new happiness, Annie changes into a lovely girl, and Emily's son Willard Kaine Nottingham falls in love with her. When Mrs. Nottingham dies, Emily contests the will and wins the inheritance for herself, but Annie's future is secured when she accepts Willard's marriage proposal.
Wealthy playboy Grant Van Gore means to have his way with his beautiful maid, the innocent Hattie Lou. He swears his love to the naive girl, and in an act so heinous as to defy belief, has the captain of his yacht perform a fake marriage ceremony. He ruins poor Hattie Lou, and then abandons her ashore the very next morning. A year later, the destitute girl and her starving baby are wandering the streets. When she sees a newspaper headline announcing that Grant has drowned at sea, Hattie Lou hatches a desperate plan for survival. She will present herself to the wealthy Van Gore's, who cannot fail to provide for their late son's widow and child!
Mildred Manning, known as Middy, is an apprentice in Madame Lizette's fashionable shop. Her beauty is discovered by Madame's brother, George Martin, and she is made a model. One afternoon, she tries on a rejected bathing suit and by adding a touch here and there, makes it into a beautiful creation. Madame then sends her to the beach to carry out a clever advertising scheme. At the shore, Middy is pursued by a reporter and photographer, who have been commissioned by Madame to photograph the girl for calendar advertising. In her flight from the publicity men, Mildred takes refuge in a car owned by lawyer Philip Gordon, who gets into the vehicle and drives off with Middy. Middy has him drop her off where she doesn't live, and he ends up having to try to track her down.
L.C. Shumway has a dual role in this action-packed three-reeler. When the Booths divorce, their twin children (both played as adults by Shumway) are separated -- George goes with his mother and becomes a fine, upstanding young man, while Herbert takes after his father's dissolute ways. Both of them wind up serving in the Army and going to the Philippines -- George as an officer and West Point graduate, and Herbert as a lowly enlisted man who soon deserts to becomes the drunken love slave of a native girl.
Gordon Kingsley lives happily with his wife Dorothy and little daughter Mary Jane. On visiting the home of San Francisco architect Frank Mason, he is shocked to discover a portrait of his own wife and daughter. Suspecting the worst of Dorothy, he hires a private detective....
Marion Moore, a young woman from a wealthy family, and her encounter with the harsh realities of industrial labor. Her sweetheart, Frank Kenyon, exposes the appalling working conditions in her father's factory, particularly the plight of a young worker, Mina, whose hand is mangled in a machine. Marion initially resists confronting her father, but a visit to Mina's home, forced by Frank, changes her perspective.
During World War I, Robin Cameron transforms her home on the Scottish seacoast into a hospital for convalescing soldiers. Sidney Carson, who owns the adjoining estate, and Dr. Hyde both love Robin, but she gives her heart to John Hamilton, an American soldier whose ship was sunk off the coast.
