Acting
A gang of Tripolitan pirates swooped down and kidnapped 13 wealthy brides, whom they held for ransom.
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During a lawn party at his New York home, steel magnate Theodore Morton claims he is bankrupt as a deterrent to Lord Dormer and the Duke of Medonia, two fortune hunters competing for his niece, Betty. After the suitors depart, unscrupulous Carl Gates is informed by his fiancée, banker's secretary Adele Shelby, that Theodore was lying. Carl pursues Betty, who accepts his proposal with the belief that the marriage will benefit her uncle. During a yachting expedition with Carl, Betty falls overboard and is rescued by architect Tom Waring, who is competing in a race. Tom wins with Betty on board, and a romance develops.
A $5,000 wager is made between two prominent jewelers, Mr. Thorpe and Mr. Chandler, as to whether their most valuable jewels can be stolen. Thorpe, seeking to stack the odds in his favor, asks Police Commissioner James Stone, a business crony, to enlist the help of Diamond Daisy, a jewel thief who is trying to go straight. Posing as a rich heiress, she asks Mr. Thorpe to accompany her to show her father an expensive item of jewelry. Instead, Mr. Thorpe is detained in an insane asylum by a doctor who has been led to believe that Thorpe is Daisy's insane husband. Daisy absconds with the jewels, but a vindictive detective, who has been following Daisy, thinks the heist is for real and tries to arrest her. Eventually the commissioner intervenes and all ends well.
The Hawaiian Princess Laone's love for Keith Parrish is thwarted by social pressure. After being persuaded to refuse Mr. Parrish's proposal she attempts suicide, but is rescued by her lover. After Parrish leaves town to take care of his father, Princess Laone is told he has abandoned her, and she departs for Hawaii on board the yacht of the dastardly wealthy playboy Stephen Brainard. Princess Laone is forced into having sex with Brainard by being threatened with gang rape by his crew.
Unscrupulous gambler and drug addict Dunstan Leech has embezzled money entrusted to him. Hoping to cover the theft he plans to wed his mother’s ward Kate Heathcote, who is tutor to his disabled brother Cecil, only to discover she loves Richard Blunt. Unhinged, due to his drug use, he poisons his brother’s food to clear the way to an inheritance while his equally dishonest mother Mrs. Jelf attempts to frame Blunt for theft. That plan fails and Kate & Richard marry departing for the diamond mines of South Africa. Obsessed, Leech follows and kidnaps Kate and the couple’s child fleeing back to England pursued by Richard. Held hostage at Leech’s estate, his dying mother gives Kate the evidence to prove Dunstan’s culpability in Cecil’s slaying but driven mad with guilt and haunted by Cecil’s spirit he commits suicide, and the young family are reunited.
A woman writes about her sister's tragedy, vowing to help others in similar situations: Because Bettina longs to leave her country home, her loving mother sends her and her serious-minded elder sister to London, accepting their aunt's invitation to visit and allow Bettina to be introduced to society. The girls' dressmaker steals the aunt's photograph and sends it to a woman who, disguised as their aunt, leads the girls to a brothel. After the elder sister escapes, aided by her concerned male companion, she races in a cab to her aunt's home, but is frustrated in her attempt to rescue Bettina by her aunt's infirm state, the inefficiency of the police, and her own inability to remember the location of the house. She finds her cab driver, but he is drunk and soon dies in an accident. After falling ill, the sister, convinced by a dream that Bettina has died, resolves to devote her life to saving other women.
In his crusade against the city’s gambling houses District Attorney Graham runs afoul of lawyer Judson Flagg who owns a notorious joint. Trying to deflect Graham, Flagg introduces his aide Joe Hunter to the D.A.’s daughter Aline. The slick Hunter convinces Aline to marry in secret. When Hunter shots Graham during a raid he extorts a necklace from Aline by confessing their marriage is a sham arranged to politically harm her father and threatening exposure. Hunter flees but Flagg attempts to put the girl in a compromising position, but she is saved in the nick of time.
After Mary Carroll's husband learns that she has had an affair, he challenges her former lover to a duel and is killed. Mary is thrown out by her husband's wealthy family and separated from her little boy, John Carroll, Jr. Years later, John Jr. falls in love with Ruth Fulton, the daughter of the horse trainer for Rex Burleigh. When her father dies, Ruth accepts Rex's offer to care for her, but she leaves the expensive apartment he has provided when she learns his true motives.
Big Jim Garrity, a mine superintendent, is falsely accused of murder by a dope doctor and is forced into exile in Europe. After several years, he has made a fortune and returns to the U.S. under an assumed name. He makes his way into society, where he falls in love with the girl whose brother he is accused of murdering.
On a whim and to save the good name of her sister, Dolly Erskine, a light-hearted young woman, declares that a riding master is her husband, not realizing that they have crossed the border into Scotland and that the confession of marriage is binding. However, she has unwittingly become the wife of an earl, falling in love with him in time to prevent a divorce decree. While Dolly is falling in love, the earl continues to pose as a riding master, and as such wins the heart of his pretty bride. Based on the play "Gretna Green," by Grace Livingston Purniss.
