Writing
While visiting New York, lumberman Angus MacDonald is introduced to cabaret dancer Ruth Mayo by his friend Sinclair. Their romance culminates in marriage, and soon MacDonald takes his bride back to the Northwest. Ruth grows tired of the Northwest, and MacDonald returns with her to New York, where their child is born; but his business does not permit him to remain. One night Ruth returns to the cafe, dances with her old partner, and accepts an agent's offer of a European tour. Six years later, MacDonald learns that his daughter is dancing at the same cafe, and through her a reconciliation is effected between husband and wife.
Sheltered young Sylvia Fairponts reads about the scandals originating from the Beaulieu Inn and determines to go there at any cost. Anxious to know whether life promises any excitement for her, Sylvia consults clairvoyant Mme. Claire St. Claire, who, for a large fee, predicts that she will soon meet a dashing young lover.
Sheriff Jack Norton is badly wounded in a gun battle with bandits and is helped by Anita Parsons, the daughter, as he later learns, of the bandit leader. Torn between his love for the girl and his devotion to duty, Jack decides the latter is too strong to resist.
Although her husband and children want to continue living modestly after they acquire a fortune from munitions, Mrs. Tompkins has social aspirations and persuades them to move into an exclusive country neighborhood and send their son Dick to Yale. When Mrs. Tompkins mistakes Louise Allenby, the daughter of her aristocratic neighbors, for a maid, Louise in jest pretends to be the Allenby social secretary. Dick, returning home, hears some girls giggling about Louise's joke on the Tompkins family and for revenge he becomes a groom for the Allenbys, but he and Louise fall in love. During a party, swindler Cholly Van Dusen steals some of the Allenby jewels and blames Louise who is put under arrest until her parents return. Cholly is then caught, Louise and Dick with revealed identities announce their love, and the Tompkinses are accepted socially.
Although they have a happy marriage, Sir Charles Chatham, an explorer, and his American wife, Lady Marion, have been unable to have children. After Charles goes to Egypt, his sister Gertrude and her sweetheart Stephen Hartley, an American consulate attaché, take refuge from a storm in a deserted tower. Frightened, Gertrude yields to Stephen's advances. Although he intends to marry Gertrude, Stephen suddenly is called to deliver supplies to starving women and children in Russia. Marion takes the pregnant Gertrude away to have her child, and notifies Stephen, who, because he is shot during Bolshevik rioting, returns too late to marry Gertrude, who dies after childbirth. To honor Gertrude's dying request, and to provide Charles with a much desired child, Marion telegraphs Charles that the baby is theirs.
Imprisoned at the French garrison on the Isle of St. Noir for putting to death a patient suffering from an incurable illness, Dr. Paul La Roche escapes to the mainland, where he meets Dr. Henry Fontaine, his boyhood friend, and Fontaine's beautiful sister, Yvonne. As Fontaine is going blind, La Roche performs several operations for him, attracting the attention of Dr. Renaud, in Algiers, who offers him a position. La Roche, practicing as Fontaine, reveals his love for Yvonne during an excursion to a Bedouin camp. Then, Lieutenant Destin, from the prison, arrives and threatens La Roche with exposure unless he surrenders the hand of Yvonne.
Mike Kildare, a swaggering youth from New York City's Bowery at the turn of the century, comes to the defense of Mamie Rose, a mender in a secondhand clothing shop, when his own gang of Irish-Americans insult her.
When Bruce Sands, a dilettante artist with a history of amorous peccadilloes, discovers that his latest flame Bunny Winston wants to marry him, he seeks refuge at his friend John Woodward's country home, unaware that Woodward has asked Bunny to marry him. Bunny follows the artist to Woodward's estate, where Bruce begins a flirtation with Woodward's daughter Audrey. After Audrey is injured in a fall from a horse, Bruce promises to marry her, thinking that she is on her deathbed. Upon hearing the news, Bunny assumes that Bruce will now be a member of the family and so marries Woodward. When Audrey recovers, the engagement is broken, Bruce returns to town, and Bunny follows. Bruce rejects Bunny and begins his campaign for his next victim, leaving Audrey and her father to console each other.
American sculptress Adele La Rue, working in Paris, lacks the inspiration to create a masterpiece, until Jean Ballard, a wild apache leader, takes refuge from the police in her apartment.
When a brutal murder occurs, all the evidence points to a phony spiritualist, who is eventually convicted of the crime--but he may not have done it. This film is lost.
