Pliny Horne

Prudence's ( Olive Thomas ) parents send her from their Pennsylvania Quaker colony to a fashionable girls seminary, hoping she can learn about the devil's tricks, instead she engages in girlish pranks, but uses her pure appearance to escape blame. Later, Prudence visits her New York aunt, a society matron, and soon attracts an array of male admirers. She falls in love with wealthy Grayson Mills, but John Melbourne, who lives off of his wife's wealth, plots to seduce her. After Melbourne loans Prudence $200 to pay a gambling debt, he forces her to go to a roadhouse by threatening to show her stern father her canceled check. At dinner, Prudence produces a love letter which Melbourne had earlier written to an actress, and says that if she is not back by midnight, her hotel clerk will show Melbourne's wife his nineteen other love letters. After Melbourne hurries her back, he discovers that she only had the one letter. Prudence now becomes engaged to Grayson.

Successful model, Phyllis Clyne, convinces a down-and-out nobleman, Billy, to pass her off in society as titled gentry. They fall in love and when it turns out that her late father actually was a lord, they decide they now can marry.

During World War I, Jeanette Gontreau becomes a "godmother" to three Allied soldiers imprisoned in a German camp. Describing herself as an old woman, she sends them cheerful letters and baskets of small gifts until one of the soldiers, Harry Ledyard, informs her that he has been released and will visit her in New York. Panic-stricken, Jeanette dons a wig and spectacles, and although she convinces Harry that she is old and gray, she soon falls in love with him. Harry worships his "godmother," and when secret service agents discover coded messages on her letters, he shields her by assuming the blame.

When Benny Boggs, a good-natured hobo, is rejected by the U.S. Army, he decides to overcome his aversion to work and offers assistance to a farmer known as Old Man Cushing. Cushing falls seriously ill and, believing he is about to die, asks Benny to deliver a package to his daughter Ruby, who left home to pursue an acting career. Benny soon learns that the package contains $50,000, but resolves to earn the old man's trust, despite his poverty. After arriving in the city, Benny rescues Beatrice Burnett from an attacker, and the two become friends. Later, Beatrice takes Benny to visit her ailing friend, who identifies herself as Cushing's long-lost daughter. Benny gives the money to Ruby and accompanies her back to the farm, where they receive a warm greeting from Cushing, who has recovered from his illness. The army finally accepts Benny, and Ruby promises to marry him when he returns from active duty.

The story deals with moving picture life, much of the locale being around Universal City. Herbert Rawlinson, played by himself, is introduced in his dressing room and is shown later doing the usual day's work on the stage. During a visit to the studio a young lady becomes infatuated with him leading to complications and humor.

Failing to get a loan from Nicholas Eyre, the Steel King and friend of his wife's father, Robert Lathrop induces his wife to beg for the money he plans to spend upon his mistress. He is given a check. Hurrying to Lola's apartments, he finds her in the arms of her lover, Haskell. In the fight that follows, Lathrop is killed and left in the park. Believing her husband to be a suicide because Eyre refused to advance him funds, the wife plans to revenge what she considers his murder, but enlightenment comes after terrible damage has been done.

Charmed by the bright smile of Taro San, a Japanese rickshaw boy, Grant Barton takes the young man to the United States as his valet. Grant marries Marion Craig, but when she departs for California to visit her sick mother, he becomes enamored of Tonia Marsh, a vamp. Marion discovers them together and leaves Grant, whereupon Taro resolves to help his kind employer out of his difficulties. Persuading Tonia that he is a member of the imperial family of Japan, Taro pays court to the adventuress, and when Grant finds them in each other's arms, he immediately fires Taro. Grant and Marion are reconciled, while Taro sadly returns to Japan.

A saloon owner loans her lover the money to buy a house, which he has led her to believe they will live in after they're married. Instead, he takes the money and buys a saloon in another town.

Shopgirl Rhoda Regan is in love with the Harmony Lad, the leader of a New York street gang called the Hudson Dusters. After two gang murders are committed in the Pepper Box, a local cabaret, the Harmony Lad promises his worried sweetheart that he will abandon the gang for a singing career, and true to his word, he soon accepts a job on the Pepper Box stage. When Stumpy Darcy, the new leader of the Dusters, kills rival gang leader Wedge Barker, who had flirted with Stumpy's girlfriend, Mamie Conlon, the Harmony Lad flees to New Jersey to escape police interrogation.

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.