Russell E. Smith

Helen Alving leads an outwardly contented life. On the eve of the 10th anniversary of her husband's death, she is about to open an orphanage as a memorial to him. To mark this occasion, her bohemian painter son Oswald has returned from Paris. Helen plans to take the opportunity to tell Oswald the truth about his father. But ghosts of the past erupt during an eventful evening, bringing the facade of civilised family life crashing down.

Mary Jones, slavey, lonely and unloved, advertises in a matrimonial paper for a good man to marry her. Charlie Brown, village sport, answers the ad. He signs it with the name of "Silent Sandy," his bachelor friend, telling Mary to come at once and he will make her happy. Mary comes. Sandy, willing to meet her, she looks him up. The tender hearted bachelor, realizing from the grins of Charlie and his pal that this is a put up job of theirs, marries Mary out of pity. Mary discovers "the joke," and that Silent Sandy did not marry her for love. As she is very much in love with her husband, this nearly breaks her heart. Meanwhile, Charlie has become fascinated by Mary's beauty. He declares his feelings, begging her to elope with him. Mary, furiously unhappy, repulses him, and Sandy comes in just in time to finish up Charlie.

Dorothy, flighty little country girl, dissatisfied with humdrum country life. longs for the gaiety of the cities. She meets a man from city on vacation; he makes cavalier love to her. She is interested and becomes infatuated. Mother warns her against him and begs her to be contented in country life. Dorothy is petulant. She lies in a hammock under the trees, and wishes the city man would come and take her away from the life she hates. Dorothy falls asleep in the hammock. The city man appears and finds her asleep. He kisses her awake and makes more violent love to her. He urges her to flee with him to the city by recounting the pleasures he can give her.

A rich contractor sends his son to supervise the building of a new dam. His clothes are stolen by a tramp and dressed in the tramp's clothes he's mistaken for a laborer.

In a primitive log cabin buried among the rugged pines deep in the California mountains lives the Mountain Girl with her grandfather, a man of hoary age.

Jim Dodson, a poor workman, has been in the habit of begging a streetcar transfer in town, in order to ride home each night from work. Ford and Ransom, a couple of crooks, rob a store and among the things taken are a quantity of stamped envelopes with the name and address of the firm printed thereon.

Abigail, the pretty daughter of a village school teacher, and Jared Guild are lovers. Bertha comes from the city to visit in the little town. Her charms prove too strong for Jared, who neglects Abigail to dance attendance upon the new belle. The country girl is broken-hearted, though she hides her sorrow from her erstwhile sweetheart. A wealthy young planter, however, soon cuts out Jared with Bertha.

Marie is a village girl, very religious. Her mother, fearing some man will make her unhappy (as she had been made by a man) made her promise on her deathbed that she would enter a nunnery. Marie considers that promise sacred and will allow nothing to interfere with her keeping that promise.

George Cantor and Tom Johnson love the same girl; one wins the girl from the other and the loser leaves swearing revenge on his successful rival. A few years later, the two marry. George is a successful doctor; Tom is an unemployed laborer with a wife, a sick baby, and little food at home.

Annette and Bunny each purchase one of a pair of antique vases, then meet and argue over who should own the matching set. After exchanging the vases in a gesture of goodwill, they end up with the same single vase they started with. Ultimately, they decide to get married and keep the complete pair together as a symbol of their union.

Harvy, the heavy, and Bella, the ingenue, of a cheap theatrical company are encumbered with an infant girl. The husband, a worthless, dissipated character, annoyed by the presence of the child and the care the wife is compelled to give it. deserts them both. The show then "busts" and the mother and the infant are left stranded in a small California town.

Margot, the motherless daughter of a New England fisherman, dreams of a better life. After rescuing the wealthy Jack Rutledge's mother, Margot is taken in by the family. Jack and Margot fall in love against the will of his mother and must find a way to marry.

There is, at once, quite a change in Dot and her sweetheart Robert plainly doesn't like it. After a tussle with a burglar and a cop the couple come to an understanding.

Maximillo Corto, a Mexican crook, keeps a tavern on the Mexican border and has a daughter whom he abuses and who has to do all the hard work around the place. One day, Bob Jamison, really an American spy in the service, comes to the inn and stops overnight. He falls in love with the daughter of the innkeeper. She is infatuated with him, as he is the first human being who has ever been kind to her. He goes away but promises to return. While he is away a large reward is offered for his capture, dead or alive. The innkeeper tells the messenger of the news that if Bob ever comes back, he will put him into room seven and hold him. The daughter overhears this, and when Bob returns, unable to warn him, she changes the number on the door of room seven to that of six. When Bob is sent up to his room by Corto, he goes in what he thinks is seven but the daughter afterwards shifts the door numbers back to their original positions. Corto decides to kill Bob in his sleep and steals upstairs.

In World War I China, Princess Tsu, who leads a secret group dedicated to eradicating German influence in China, learns that the Chinese viceroy, in order to further his own ambitions, has organized an army to help Germany win Russia. She steals their written agreement and smuggles it to American agent Robert Kenyon, with whom she has fallen in love. The princess' jealous fiancé, Prince Kang, tells her that Robert is betrothed to an American girl and, bent on revenge, she informs German agent Von Richtman that Robert possesses the secret papers. In Washington, Von Richtman sends his henchmen to apprehend Robert before he can reach the Secretary of State, but Princess Tsu, whose love of country has triumphed over her personal concerns, foils the plot. Aware of her great love for Prince Kang, she returns to China and marries him.