Writing
"Blizz" Ballard, summoned by the Homesteaders' League to track down a gang of cattle rustlers, arrives in Paradise Valley. In the saloon, he is taunted by Jerome Garrett, who hopes to intimidate him but is himself beaten in a fight. Ballard, after proving himself by riding an outlaw horse, is taken on at the Gregg ranch. Garrett, in the family's favor and admired by Emily, the judge's daughter, accuses Ballard of being a cattle thief, while his accomplices capture and torture the sheriff.
Directed by Wallace Worsley.
Dee Halloran rescues Grace Macy from a runaway stage and learns that her grandfather was murdered before he could divulge the whereabouts of a large sum of money he had hidden from thieves. Buck Fitzgerald, the leader of a gang of desperadoes, weasels himself into Grace's confidence and leads her to believe that McKeller, a friend of Dee's, was responsible for the murder. Thinking that Grace knows the location of her grandfather's money, Fitzgerald later tries by force to make her talk.
The story of an orphan girl and her dog.
Tessa Fayne, unhappy in her life as a clerk in a small town candy store, leaves her Aunt Lottie and journeys to New York City to search for Arnold Fuller, an actor who once offered her love as well as a career on the stage. After learning that Arnold is married, Tessa rushes out into the rain and runs headlong into Carey Larned, a young millionaire. Carey takes her to his apartment, where a fellow clubman, Olin Humphreys, tries to attack her. In defending her, Carey suffers a lung hemorrhage and is ordered West by his physician to recuperate. In his absence, Tessa is cared for by Madeline Carson, who, although deeply in love with Carey, has inspired only his friendship in return. Under Madeline's watchful eye, Tessa grows into a beautiful and cultured woman. Several years later, Madeline is killed in an accident, and when Carey returns to visit Tessa, he realizes his love for her and proposes.
Nara, the daughter of a wealthy Russian killed by the Bolsheviki, flees to America and meets Adam Pine, a sculptor, who marvels at the beauty of her hands. Through him she meets Mrs. Vanessa Yates, a patroness of the arts, and Dr. Emlen Claveloux, who is completely absorbed in science. Connor Lee, a fake spiritualist, persuades her that she has a God-given power to cure ill people, and profits financially by her success in this work. This brings her into conflict with the physician, whom she loves, but her faith in the power of will and her beauty of character finally teach him that faith is at least an important adjunct to medicine.
Jim Wesley returns from college with a silk shirt and eastern ways, earning the contempt of the cowpunchers on his father's ranch. With a little hard riding and fancy roping, however, Jim proves himself to be a regular guy. Jim's father is involved in a dispute over water rights with Adam Grayson, a neighboring rancher, and the two men decide to settle the disagreement by a marriage between Jim and Grayson's daughter, Marguerite. The young people refuse, but when Marguerite is attacked by a rejected suitor, Jim comes quickly to her rescue.
Mabel Bannister, the daughter of Richard Bannister, visits the wealthy Cardews at Ripley Manor and falls in love with young Jack Cardew, the son of the Bishop of Ripley, Lord John Cardew. Jack asks Mabel to marry him and Jack's stepmother Lady Hester approves, but the bishop doesn't because he knows nothing about Mabel's family. The family invites Mabel and her parents to dinner at the manor to get acquainted--but it turns out that few people in both families are quite what they appear to be, and each side has secrets that they don't want the other to find out.
Forced to abandon his ancestral castle, William Tudor accompanies his granddaughter Irene to London, while millionaire John Kershaw buys the castle for his son, "Kit." Irene joins the Gaiety Theatre company, hoping that her lover, Owen, who has gone to Africa, will return and purchase the castle from the Kershaws.
There's dirty work afoot at the crossroads when arch-villain Howard Breen and a crooked banker are scheming to take over the Jeremiah Grant's ranch, and Breen also has his eye on Grant's daughter, Evelyn. However, cowhand Johnny Bowers, who also has an eye on Evelyn, and his horse, Lightning, put an end to the villainy.
Captain Manning, a seasoned salt, is ordered to remove his battered ship, the Swallow, from the town's harbor because of a superstition connected with it. The captain, who lives alone, visits the Mariner's Home and relates the story of how he came into possession of the schooner. Manning was the first mate on the yacht of a wealthy man when it encountered the Swallow at sea. He went on board, accompanied by the drug-addicted son of his employer, and discovered a mutinous crew and a disabled captain fighting for control of the ship. Manning took charge and brought the ship safely to port, after successfully putting down the mutineers by humiliating their leader, who had kept them in fear by practicing voodoo in the ship's hold. Manning later married the captain's daughter. Now he controls the ship.
Joyce Addison, wife of an American attache in Madrid, looks to her painting as sole entertainment, as her husband neglects her for business. One night late, while driving, she meets and is robbed by a bandit who proves sufficiently chivalrous to see her home.
Released from prison on parole, the "Gas-Pipe Kid" returns to his home in the slums to find his mother dead and his father evicted. He is arrested for beating up the landlord but escapes with the help of Ida Hunt, his sweetheart. Years later he is a baseball star known as Bat Shugrue and is widely idolized by boys who read about his clean living,
Dance-hall girl Colette Brissac, brought up in the Canadian Northwest, refuses the protection of New Yorker Lucky Folsom, who later marries Gloria Waldron, an ambitious woman actually in love with engineer Martin Bates. When Bates drifts into the mining town, the miners, while drunk, force him to marry Colette. She nurses him back to health and they gradually fall in love. The arrival of Folsom and Gloria threatens to break up their marriage, and Colette prevents a fight between the two men by wounding Folsom, causing the latter to come to his senses and teaching his wife a lesson.
Cordelia Marlowe comes from a society family that has lost its fortune. She falls into the clutches of D.K. Franklin, a crooked lawyer who specializes in blackmail, and finds herself involved in Franklin's scheme to extort money from a family friend. She sets out to protect her friend's money and expose Franklin for the thief he is.
The Brockton clan considers the mountain Little Smoky their own, but then the government comes in and declares it a forest and game preserve. This doesn't stop the family, who swears they will do what they want with the land.
The head of the Kimberly household rules it with an iron fist. Unfortunately the head of the Kimberly household isn't Grant (J.H. Gilmore), the father and wealthy Wall Street magnate -- it's his spoiled, headstrong daughter Catherine (Virginia Pearson). She is so willful that she has earned the name "Impossible Catherine," and her whole focus in life is to prove women's superiority over the masculine gender.
Ranch owner John Hardy becomes the dupe of Cleo Dade when he marries her and brings her home to be a mother to his daughter Rose.
A rodeo rider arrives in Toptown to compete in the local rodeo. He meets a pretty young girl who, with her crippled father, runs a merry-go-round for the town's children. The town bully, who has designs on the young girl, tries to drive off the cowboy but is beaten senseless in the resulting fight. Soon afterwards, however, the girl's father is found shot, and the cowboy is arrested for the crime.
Whiskey smuggler Dubec, trades liquor to the Indians, takes revenge on the Royal North West Mounted Police pursuing him by killing the wife of post commander Sergeant Delisle and abducting his teen-aged daughter Nonette.
