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- In Chicago, a crime syndicate tries to take over a labor union by killing its whistle blower treasurer and framing the honest union boss for the murder.
- Showdown in Abilene between lawmen Pat Garrett, Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson and Butch Cassidy's gang over a large shipment of money arriving by train.
- David Clifton is blinded while rescuing Katharine Lambert, the girl he loves, from a fire. Caring nothing for David, Katharine pursues her pleasures while Joan Merrifeld, who loves David, takes her place by his bedside. Believing that Joan is Katharine, David marries her and it is through her support and cooperation that he becomes a noted author. Upon regaining his sight, David is more than surprised to learn the identity of his wife. He is content, however, until Katharine reappears, bored with her husband Brooks. David's old love for Katharine returns and Joan, crushed, offers little resistance until Brooks, in anger, vows to kill Katharine if he discovers her unfaithful. It is only through Joan, who enters into a battle of wits with Brooks, that a catastrophe is averted. Then David at last realizes that he loves Joan, but at her command, leaves her for a year's time.
- After robbing a bank, a criminal is wrongfully pardoned from prison.
- The story of Nathan Hale, an American soldier and spy from his days as a teacher to his eventual capture and execution.
- Juliette La Monde, the musical comedy star, admired by men, loves Morgan Grant, who has grown weary of married life. Grant demands a divorce from his wife, Martha, but her religion prevents her giving him his freedom. She leaves, promising he will never see her. Mrs. Nicholson, Juliette's mother, always dreams and prays for her. Robert, her husband, a stern Englishman, is not in sympathy with his wife where Juliette, his stepdaughter is concerned. Francine, his seven-year-old daughter, has no knowledge of her grown up sister. Mrs. Nicholson becomes ill. Dr. Stewart divines the reason for her sinking health. On the opening night of a new review, Dr. Stewart calls Juliette to be present at her mother's death. At her mother's home her cruel stepfather denies her right to be there. Francine has decked herself in the cloak left by Juliette. A week later he sails for England. Juliette recovers from a severe illness. Ten years pass. Juliette is constant to Grant. She expresses gratitude for having made her happy, but his ardor is beginning to cool. In England Francine attends a convent. Martha, a teacher in the convent, has never spoken of her sorrow. She becomes friendly with Francine. Juliette writes her stepfather asking him to send Francine to her so that she may make amends by her devotion. Amy Barker, an American girl, gives accounts of gay life that awaken in Francine a desire to "really live." Arriving at her father's home she finds him dead from a stroke of apoplexy brought on by his fury at Juliette's daring to write. Reading the letter, Francine realizes Juliette is her sister, and decides to go to her. Juliette makes radical changes in her mode of living. She sends Grant away. When Grant revolts she reminds him Francine is only a little girl. Amy Barker introduces Francine to the younger smart set as well as to the ritual of cocktail drinking. Juliette awaits Francine. She is happy in her ability to be kind to her. Dr. Stewart's son, Philip, who has won honors at West Point, becomes interested in Francine. Several months later Grant comes upon Francine. He introduces himself as an old friend of Juliette, and is surprised to find her a beautiful girl, instead of the noisy gawk he had expected. When Grant complains to Juliette of her changed behavior she tells him the responsibility of bringing up a little sister has changed her. When she intimates that she is looking forward to a match between Francine and Philip he calls Juliette a fool. She tells him marriage is the sweetest lot of a woman, for then she can have children. A few days later Juliette is shocked to find that Francine has been smoking, but Francine responds that Amy and all smart girls smoke and drink. Francine thinks herself far above the love of such men as Philip. Philip is heartbroken. Juliette comes upon Francine puffing at Grant's cigarette. After sending Francine to dress, Juliette embraces Grant, and is shocked to find that he is indifferent to her caress. Amy tells Francine about Juliette's past. Juliette sees Morgan kissing Francine. She intercepts a note from Morgan saying he expects Francine at his apartment at four. Francine tells Juliette she has no right to advise a young girl, in view of her own past. Grant dismisses his servants for the day. Juliette locks Francine in her room and goes to Grant's apartment. When Grant accuses her of jealousy she tells him love for him and duty to Francine prompted her action. Juliette is willing to let Grant marry Francine if he will secure a divorce, but he says a man of his type could never remarry. She wants him to write Francine that he will never see her again. When he refuses, she shoots him. Overcome by remorse she pleads for forgiveness. Realizing his love for Juliette, Grant writes a confession indicating that he is tired of living. Before he dies Grant asks Juliette's forgiveness. Juliette tells Francine of Grant's death, and though she seems overcome, sorrow leaves but a slight scar on her heart. She later accepts Philip. Somewhere in France is Juliette. As a Red Cross nurse she has occasion, at the sacrifice of her own life, to save Martha. Before she dies Juliette is forgiven by Martha.
- Ne'er-do-well Jack Burkshaw returns home after a 10-year absence to find his widowed mother remarried to wealthy Eugene Alston. Finding himself out-of-place among his newly-acquired relatives, Jack accepts the position as manager of a stock farm owned by his stepfather. Under Jack's management, the farm prospers, winning him the respect of his stepsister Marion. When stepbrother Jerry refuses to marry stenographer Barbara Manning, who is pregnant by him, and instead becomes engaged to socialite Laurel Baxter, Jack, outraged, kidnaps Jerry and forces him to perform manual labor on the farm. Jerry finally comes to his senses and agrees to marry Barbara, and the Alston family accepts Jack as a valuable family member.
- A man discovers that he has two personalities--and one of them is a notorious strangler.
- Vesta Wheatley and Dick Mortimer have been friends from childhood, but when he declared his love and asks her to marry him, she tells him their friendship is too pleasant to spoil it by love-making. John Randolph, a wealthy city man, is attracted to Vesta and a romance develops which culminates in a quiet wedding. Although Vesta is happy she enjoys tasting of worldly pleasures unknown to her. However, after a short fling she returns to her husband with increased love and respect. Unable to stand village life, after Vesta's marriage, Dick comes to the city. He and Vesta meet by chance and he avails himself of her invitation to call. John, returning home unexpectedly, is surprised to find Dick talking to his wife; he recalls a scene in the country before his marriage, when he saw Dick making love to Vesta. However, he hides his suspicions and he and his wife go to their country lodge. Beset by thoughts of Vesta, Dick follows and during her husband's absence, enters the lodge. Vesta resents his declaration of love, and hearing a noise on the outside, begs him to leave before her husband returns. The door is burst open and Skinny, a gangster, enters. In the struggle that ensues Dick is killed by Skinny. Vesta grabs the pistol and holding Skinny at bay, prepares to call the police, but Skinny tells her that she bad better think before phoning, as the news will create a scandal. Cowed by his threats, Vesta is compelled to watch in silence as he drags Dick's lifeless body away. Although her husband suspects nothing, Vesta is haunted with memories of Dick's murder, and Skinny, by frequent blackmail, helps keep alive the memory. At last she feels that she can bear it no longer and when Skinny comes with a demand for an enormous sum, she seizes a pistol and kills him. She then phones to the police, telling them she is alone in the house and hears a burglar entering; there is a pistol in her husband's room. The burglar is approaching, what shall she do? The officer tells her to hold the burglar off until help comes. With the receiver down, she fires a shot into the air. When the officers arrive they pronounce the killing is self-defense, and Vesta is happy with her husband, knowing that her tormentor is out of the way.
- Young minister Brand Cameron meets stage star Adrienne Durant at her father's humble country home where she has gone to recover from the excitement of an attempted suicide by one of her admirers. Believing that Adrienne is an innocent country girl, Cameron falls in love with her until, in a fit of remorse, the actress tells him the truth and returns to her old life in New York. Cameron follows and, unable to give Adrienne up, is denounced by his parishioners and forced to resign. He takes his calling to a tough lumber camp while Adrienne accepts the charge of a school for poor children. At the camp, Faro Kate falsely accuses Cameron of fathering her child and the lumbermen, enraged, set fire to the church. When Cameron risks his life to save Kate's baby trapped in the burning building, however, Kate retracts her lie and the minister is finally accepted by the gruff inhabitants of the camp. Cameron's happiness is made complete when Adrienne comes to join him in his new ministry.
- Susan, a young girl, the support of her old uncle, earns her living in Madame Millet's fashionable shop. She almost loses her position through her rebuff of the advances of Madame's son, but the arrival of a rich customer renders he services as model necessary. The customer, Mrs. Luckett, a parvenu, struggling desperately to get into society, is struck by Susan's beauty and ladylike bearing, and when a Countess, whom she intended to use as an entering wedge into society, fails to appear, she prevails upon Susan to assume the role of Countess for a night. Susan is a great success and society goes mad over the titled lady. Mrs. Luckett is delighted and insists that Susan continue to play the role. At first Susan refuses, but Mrs. Luckett's pleas and the sudden death of her uncle cause her to change her mind, and she decided to go through with the part. As the Countess, Susan wins the heart of Clavering Gordon, a wealthy and attractive young bachelor. Mrs. Luckett had hoped to "land" Gordon as husband for her daughter, Ninon, and she resents Susan's rivalry. She tells Susan that the disappointment of losing Gordon is killing Ninon, and urges her to go away. Though now deeply in love with Gordon, Susan decides to sacrifice her own feelings to save Ninon. She is about to leave when La Salle, Mrs. Luckett's scheming social secretary, tells her that Ninon is a confirmed drug fiend, and would only ruin Gordon's life. He persuades Susan that she owes it to Gordon to marry him, and save him from Ninon and at last Susan is won over by his arguments. Just before the marriage ceremony, the scheming secretary reveals his true motives. He demands a large sum of money from Susan on penalty that, if she refuses, he will reveal to the assembled wedding guests that she is not a Countess, but a poor working girl and an impostor. Susan is dismayed. Determining that she will go no further with the deception, and scorning the secretary, she rushes into the midst of the wedding party and confesses all. Before the astonished Gordon or any of the other guests can stop her, she disappears. Seeking to forget he sorrow and unhappiness, Susan becomes a nurse and by her sweet unselfishness, wins the love of all whom she meets. After Susan disappeared, Gordon searched in vain, and finally despairing over the results and giving up all hopes of ever finding her, her marries Ninon, in the hope of reforming her. His hopes are vain, for with the years Ninon has grown continually worse, until she has become a shattered wreck. Susan is called upon to nurse her, and though town with conflicting emotions, when she learns that Ninon is the wife of Gordon, the man she loves, Susan tries desperately to save the drug-crazed woman. After a fierce struggle, the maddened Ninon succeeds in blinding Susan with a pair of scissors and then flings herself from the window to her death in the court below. Gordon meets the blinded Susan, and after a brief courtship, the two are married. In their great love they are rendered doubly happy by indications that Susan's sight is about to be restored.
- Adventuress Stefanie Paoli forsakes her lover, humble fisherman Gabriel Barrato, for the arms of a nobleman, the Marquis de Mohrivart. Upon learning that Stefanie has wed another, Gabriel kills himself and his brother Benedetto swears revenge. Stefanie goes to France with the Marquis where they run an exclusive gambling club. Years pass and they have a son, Charles, who is sent to England for his education. Charles, ignorant of his parent's method of living, marries Rose Verney, the daughter of an upper class British family. Meanwhile, Benedetto has acquired wealth and visits the Mohrivart tables in Paris. Although enthralled with Stefanie's beauty, he attacks the woman on whom he has sworn revenge. In attempting to save his wife, the Marquis is killed. Benedetto is sentenced to life in prison, and soon after, Stefanie, learning that her son is dying, visits his family in England. After Charles death, she refuses to leave, threatening to invoke an old French law which would declare her granddaughter's birth illegitimate unless the Verney family supports her. Stefanie is prevented from victimizing her son's family when Sir Horace Welby, a former lover, falsely informs her that Benedetto has been freed and is seeking her life. Terrified, Stefanie disappears and leaves the Verneys in peace.
- After graduating from finishing school, Claire Wilson falls into the hands of wealthy rake Mason Forbes. After installing her as his mistress, Mason abandons Claire to marry socialite Grace Hughes. Out of revenge, Grace marries Harold, Mason's younger brother and the two couples live together under one roof. Mason tires of his wife and begs Claire to leave her husband, but she is pregnant and refuses. An indifferent mother, Claire leaves her child with a nurse while she spends her time with Mason in cabarets. When Claire and Harold are reconciled after the near fatal illness of their child, Mason, furious, divulges Claire's sordid past to his brother. Although overwhelmed by the revelation, Harold forgives Claire and Mason, rejected, turns to alcohol.
- When a judge is financially ruined by Peter Brownley, a Wall Street millionaire, his daughter seeks revenge by getting a job in the tycoon's office. She manages to discover information that she believes her father can use to recover his swindled money and do to Peter what he did to her father. However, she meets and falls in love with Robert, the son of the man who ruined her father. Complications ensue.
- Vivacious little Gilberte, known as Frou Frou, is the daughter of M. Brigard, a retired merchant, who has as his companion in a life of gaiety, Comte Paul de Valreas, a much younger man. Both the Count and Henry de Sartorys are in love with Frou Frou, and when De Sartorys asks for the hand of Frou Frou, M. Brigard refers him to Louise, the elder daughter, who is in charge of the household. To Louise, who loves de Sartorys, comes the first anguish of her life, when he confides his love for Frou Frou. However, she confers with her little sister who agrees to marry De Sartorys. Paul also asks for Frou Frou's hand, but Brigard refuses, stating he is too jolly a companion to be trusted as a son-in-law. Five years pass, and although Frou Frou adores her son Georgie, the calm role of a homemaker does not suit her, and on one of Louise's visits she realizes her own place has been usurped, as both De Sartorys and Georgie go to her for advice. Paul still loves Frou Frou, but she fights against her growing attraction for him, and begs him to go away. Finding she is no longer necessary for the happiness of her husband and son, after a furious tirade against Louise, she leaves and joins Paul in Venice. Paul's mother receives her, and the next day, De Sartorys, who has followed, finds her, and despite her pleas, fights a duel with Paul, in which Paul is killed. Out of the loneliness and sorrow of the ensuing months her soul is chastened, and she returns to ask her husband one last favor, that she be allowed to die in the house she entered as a bride. Although Louise also pleads for her he at first refuses; but when Frou Frou, formerly so light-hearted and care-free, pleads on her knees, he can no longer deny her, and the two meet in a tearful embrace. Her life closes with a semblance of happiness, as she gives to Louise the two that are closest to her, her husband and son.
- Agatha, called "Miss Petticoats," is daughter of a French nobleman and an American woman, lives with her grandfather, Captain Joel Stewart, since the death of her mother years before. Knowing nothing of her royal heritage, Agatha gladly takes a job as secretary to the wealthy Sarah Copeland, whose nephew, Guy Hamilton, immediately begins pursuing the new employee. Jealous of Agatha, one of Guy's former sweethearts, Mrs. Worth Courtleigh, starts spreading rumors about her, and when Joel hears a particularly scandalous one, he dies of shock. Taking Agatha away from all the gossip, Sarah sails with her to Europe, where Agatha finally learns about her bloodline, and also discovers that she is the heiress to a fortune. Then, when she and Sarah return home, Agatha forgives all the people who believed the rumors, and marries the Reverend Ralph Harding, who was always certain of her innocence.
- Although he is a successful architect, devoted family man Robert Crewe does not earn enough to cover the expenses of his wife Marion and daughter Emily. Unknown to him, his Uncle Abner wants to ruin him because Robert's father stole Abner's fiancée, who died in childbirth after their marriage. Abner hires a beautiful seductress to break up Robert's happy home, but she is unsuccessful. Abner, who dies prematurely, leaves Robert his fortune, hoping that it finally will lead to Robert's downfall. As Robert and Marion drift apart, Emily is left in the hands of an uncaring nurse and cries herself to sleep each night. Robert has an affair with a Broadway actress and Marion becomes romantically involved with a prominent sculptor. Robert squanders his inheritance and involves himself in highly speculative business investments until, threatened with Emily's death, he and Marion finally decide to change their lives and bring the family back together once again.
- When his wife Grace inherits her father's stock, John Miller, the president of the Western Power and Development Company, becomes a millionaire and moves to New York with his family. Beset by business problems, Miller pays little attention to his wife, and Grace, feeling neglected, takes up with a bohemian set. Among her new acquaintances she meets Stuart Mordant, the attorney for Thomas Hurd, a business rival of Miller's. Grace seeks refuge from loneliness in Mordant, who makes a bargain with Hurd to gain control of her husband's company for half a million dollars. Mordant succeeds in compromising Grace and Miller, finding evidence of his wife's betrayal, insists upon a divorce. Grace transfers her stock to Mordant, and at the stockholders' meeting, Hurd demands Miller's resignation. He is about to comply when Grace enters, exposes Mordant and destroys the transfer. Miller offers Mordant a pistol, suggesting that suicide is his only honorable alternative. Mordant takes the gun and leaves the room, but escapes to Europe, leaving behind a note which exonerates Grace. Grace and Miller then decide to unravel their problems together.
- When Marie Dacre, the ward of James Rokeby, falls in love with blackmailer Fenwick Harvey, she ignores Rokeby's advice to stop seeing the rogue. Rokeby, a respected bank president, has a past as a thief, which Harvey soon discovers with the services of ex-detective Donavan. His past exposed, Rokeby flees in disgrace, thus forcing Marie to recognize Harvey's villainy. While searching for Rokeby, Marie is led into a trap by Harvey and Donavan from which she is rescued by Rokeby. Learning that his past misdeeds have been pardoned by the governor, Rokeby returns to his post with Marie as his wife.
- Evelyn Carmichael, a poor widow aware that she is about to die, writes to her wealthy father-in-law Lord Carmichael, who had disowned his son years earlier, pleading that he rescue his granddaughter Geraldine, known as Jerry, from a life in the slums. Lord Carmichael, an avowed woman-hater since his wife disappeared years earlier with his brother, expects Jerry to be a boy and is appalled to find otherwise. However, the lord is won over by Jerry's sweetness, and when Jim Dawson, a neighbor of Jerry's from the tenements, arrives at Carnimore Castle with his daughter Sophia, whom he is trying to pass off as Jerry, the lord exposes them as impostors and then expels them from his castle. Meanwhile, Jerry has also won over the hearts of the servants, whom she is drilling into a play army. One day, while on an excursion into an unused tower of the castle, they discover a locked room in which reside two skeletons. A note near one of the skeletons explains that Lord Carmichael's wife and his brother had been exploring the tower when the lock sprung and trapped them, causing their deaths. Lord Carmichael, realizing that his wife didn't betray him, has his faith in women restored and makes Jerry mistress of the castle.
- Janet Hall begins a romance with Dale Overton, a small town minister, after the death of Henry Dalton, with whom she had an illegitimate child. At first, because of her past, she refuses to marry him, but then, after listening to his sermons about forgiveness, she consents, although she makes sure that he knows nothing of her history. Finally, however, he does find out about her relationship with Henry, and just as Janet feared he might, he renounces his wife. Defending Janet, Dale's friend, Stuart Doane, accuses the minister of spreading the word about tolerance without actually believing it himself. Dale realizes his hypocrisy, and then, after forgiving Janet, sees through her recovery from a breakdown brought on by the sudden disclosure of her past and by the subsequent strain on her marriage.
- Hugh Eltinge, a struggling artist, and Mark Dunbar, a genius of the pen, whom the world has as yet failed to reward, live together in MacDougal Alley. Across the hall is Doris Golden, a reporter on the Evening Star, who enthuses over the work of both. Mark's novel is sold and Hugh and Doris see a new Mark. Mark begs Hugh to allow him to stake him until his pictures sell, but pleasure in his new clothes and new popularity dwindle as he sees his old friends will not profit by them. A happy idea strikes him and he buys all of Hugh's paintings on exhibition at a local dealer, requesting that his name be not mentioned. Mark rejoices with Hugh when he comes home to tell the news. Then the two decide Doris must also share with them, and together they go to a lawyer, and arrange to persuade him to send a letter to Doris saying her uncle in San Francisco has died leaving her a thousand dollars. In another section of the City Mrs. Trailes and her daughter, Ruby, scheme to ensnare a wealthy husband for the girl. Mark's reputation has impressed them. He is invited to attend a meeting of their Literary Club and the girl is given instructions to attract him. Mark meets the young society girl. Hugh and Doris, she is reporting the meeting, are also there and to them evidences of Mark's awakening infatuation are pitifully clear. Mark sees Ruby often. At a ladies' swimming club he is the guest of her mother. At a sign from her mother Ruby pretends to be drowning and Mark jumps in to her rescue. The friendship thus engendered ripens into love and it is not long before they are married. But early in his wedded life Mark begins to feel the pangs of disillusion. Ruby is pettish and extravagant and when he remonstrates with her, she breaks into tirades of scolding that drive him to silence. Doris discovers her uncle is alive, and, perplexed, goes to the lawyer, who tells her all. She writes to Mark, enclosing a check for the whole amount she has left and promising to send the balance as soon as she can. His wife intercepts the letter and accuses him of infidelity. Her true vulgarity asserts itself and he goes to the little studio. Ruby follows and finds him with Doris and another scene is enacted. Mark begs Hugh to look after Doris, then leaves. Hugh leaves a letter for Doris and a note in which he asks her not to read the letter before she has found happiness. Hugh tells a newspaper reporter with whom he is acquainted that he has inherited a fortune from his grandfather, and the account is printed in the evening paper. Ruby and her mother remember he is a friend of Mark's and ask him to call. Soon a closer intimacy than friendship develops and Mark comes home one evening to find Ruby in his friend's arms. Disillusioned, his last ideal, friendship, completely shattered, Mark hurries away. After the divorce, he seeks Doris and the two become engaged. She remembers the letter and opens it. Herein Hugh has outlined his plans, the story of the fortune was a hoax, wherewith to entrap Ruby. For the sake of friendship he had sacrificed himself to bring happiness to the two he loved. Mark telephones to him and when he comes the old feeling of happiness and love fills once more the little studio in MacDougal Alley.
- Doris Moore is the daughter of a minister living at a small country town a few hours' distance from New York. She helps her father in his work among his congregation, teaches in the Sunday school and plays the wheezy old organ in the church. The household is thrown into a mild state of excitement on receipt of a letter purporting to come from an organ supply company in New York, but which in reality is from a band of crooks who use this as one of the fraudulent schemes whereby they obtain money from the unwary. The letter offers to supply a beautiful pipe organ on receipt of an installment of one third of the cost, the balance to be paid on time. The matter is laid before the deacons and they decide to consider the offer. The minister writes to the organ company and the chief of the crooks, Harry Leland, a handsome, dashing man of the world, arrives and explains in glowing terms the advantages of the organ. While waiting for the deacons to collect the first installment of two hundred dollars, Leland pays considerable attention to Doris, who is much fascinated by him, representing as he does a totally different type of man to what she has been used to. In the meantime, the crooks in New York have received information from out west that Will Lake, a young eastern college man who in two years has made a fortune of fifty thousand dollars, is returning east, and will stay in New York for a week. They decide to try to blackmail Lake on his arrival and at once communicate with Leland, who replies that he will return immediately as soon as he gets the organ money. Leland has become attracted by the freshness and beauty of Doris and decides to lure her to New York and then make use of her in the crooks' nefarious schemes. He protests violent love for her and proposes marriage, and Doris consents. Immediately after receiving the two hundred dollars from the deacons, he approaches Doris as she leaves Sunday school and with well-simulated despair tells her he has received very bad news and that he is threatened with ruin and begs her to go to New York with him as she alone can save him. After much persuasion, Doris' scruples are overcome and she returns with Leland who takes her to the boarding house run by 'Frisco Kate, a house which is used by the crooks as a meeting place. It is decided to have Doris act as a decoy and to get Lake to visit a flat which has been prepared beforehand. She is therefore told that Lake has defrauded her lover Leland of a considerable sum of money and that if he could be seen, things might be arranged satisfactorily. She is told to speak to Lake, who will be pointed out to her in the hotel, and tell him that her mother who has friends in Goldfield wishes to ask his advice about mining stock. The plan succeeds and Lake unsuspectingly goes to the flat and while alone with Doris, Leland with two other crooks rush in and accuse him of being in a compromising position with Doris whom he calls his wife, much to her amazement, and says that Lake must pay in money to avoid scandal. Lake intuitively feels that Doris is innocent and refuses. A furious fight ensues in which Lake is knocked unconscious, robbed of all his money and locked in the room, the crooks making good their escape with Doris, whom they take to their hiding place. Their plans are defeated, however, by one of their own band, Laylock and 'Frisco Kate, who, hardened crooks though they have been, refused to be parties to the dragging down of an innocent girl. They release Lake and go along with him to the police and lead a raid on the crooks' hiding place who are all captured and receive their just deserts. Doris meets her father at the police station, he having come to New York to trace her. Lake, who is much interested in them, invites them to his hotel to meet his mother and sister. There is a pretty ending to the story when Will Lake, who to celebrate his good fortune and has made the church a present of a beautiful organ, pays a visit to Doris and her father, and a love romance, the seeds of which were set when she innocently acted as a decoy, is happily consummated.
- General Wayne, a proud old American patriot, and his two sons: Captain Stephen Wayne, an army officer, and Anthony Wayne, a successful young portrait painter, valiantly maintain the tradition of the Wayne family honor. Anthony is engaged to Doris Leighton, a girl of refinement, but he becomes infatuated with Marcia Quesnay, emotional actress and enchantress. He disgraces his family by his devotion to her, and, lured on by her demands, abandons his promising career. Stephen Wayne, meeting her in an endeavor to compel her to release Anthony from his unfortunate entanglement, falls sincerely in love with her and she with him. Later, with the dawning of this first real love of her life. Marcia renounces her butterfly life and becomes a tender and self-sacrificing woman. She returns all of Anthony's gifts, giving them to Stephen for safe keeping. In order to disillusion Anthony she causes him to believe she is only a common woman and he turns from her in disgust. Led on by Eric Mainwaring, an actor in love with Marcia, who tells Anthony that Marcia is a woman to be bought and not loved, Anthony is persuaded to steal from his father's safe government funds placed there by Stephen, and is cheated of the money at cards by Eric. Stephen, discovering the theft, goes to Marcia's apartment to confront her with the result of her influence over Anthony, and is there in time to rescue her from Eric, who comes with the money he has cheated from Anthony, to persuade Marcia to go abroad with him. Stephen forces Eric to disgorge the stolen funds and to leave in fear o£ the authorities. The following morning Anthony, penniless, an outcast and a thief, is saved from committing suicide by Doris. His father discovering the theft and accusing Anthony, urges him on to suicide, telling his son that honorable death is better than a life of dishonor. Stephen arrives with Marcia in time to avert the tragedy, telling a lie to save Anthony in the eyes of his father and Doris, that it was he (Stephen) who took the money from the safe, at the same time producing the bills to substantiate his claim. A general reconciliation follows. When his father sees Marcia standing beside Stephen he fears that this other son has been ensnared, but Stephen tells them that they have all misjudged her, and that she is going to enhance the family honor by becoming his wife.
- Sally McGill, a little Irish girl, brought up in a particularly sordid section, is compelled to work to support her entire family. Ben Blaney, the young foreman where she works, loves little Sally. Mrs. Rockwell, wealthy and childless, finds joy in taking a limited number of the poorest children to her country home each summer, and she selects those whom she will take. While visiting the lower East Side, which is distinguished by the name of "Pigtail Alley," she meets Sally and impulsively asks her to go along to earn her board and keep by caring for and helping with the children. Sally is overjoyed. Ben Blaney, however, proposes to Sally and is rejected. Mrs. Rockwell's niece, Isabelle, is jealous of Sally and takes a violent dislike to her. Sally's ambition is to become a refined lady like those about her, and she is attracted to Paul Taylor, but knows she is inferior to him. Isabelle succeeds in having Sally discharged. She then goes to work in a millinery store where she has opportunities to learn the refined ways she so admires, and joins a library to study on this subject. Mrs. Rockwell, in need of a maid, seeks little Sally out and offers her the position, and she again meets Paul, who proposes to her on her way home one evening, but she, realizing the great social gulf between them, does not consent and tells him he must never see her again. She leaves Mrs. Rockwell's employment to become an artist's model and because she pledged Mrs. Rockwell to secrecy about her new address, Paul goes to her mother, who, believing there is a possibility of a rich marriage, gives him Sally's address. Paul waits for Sally and escorts her home, standing in the doorway for a chat. Ben sees them just as Paul is embracing Sally and in a rage strikes Paul down. Later, when Ben learns that Paul has asked for Sally in marriage, he tells Sally that they are not made of the same clay, and that she has outgrown "Pigtail Alley," and he hopes that she will be happy with Paul. She goes to Paul and he holds her in his arms and finishes the sentence he started in the hallway, which Ben interrupted, "When do we start for South America?"