Raymond Bloomer

Mark Sabre hires young Effie Bright to keep his snobbish, cold-hearted wife Mabel company while he goes off to war. When he returns home from the front wounded, he finds that Mabel has fired Effie, who shows up at Mark's door with her baby, having no place to go. Mark takes her in, but Mabel leaves him when the town shuns him for what they believe is going on with Mark and Effie. Matters are further complicated when Effie, driven to desperation, commits an unspeakable act that results in Mark having a nervous breakdown--and then things get worse.

John Dickson, millionaire candidate for mayor, is in love with Dora Malcom, a society girl. He finds, however, that she is engaged to marry Frank Stevens. He hides his grief and promises to be best man at the wedding.

Angela maintains a coastal lighthouse in Italy, where she awaits the return of her brothers from the war. She learns they are casualties and takes solace in the arms of an American sailor washed ashore. However, the sailor turns out to be a German spy, and she is torn between her love for him and her realization that he is part of the enemy force that has destroyed her family.

Joan and Magdalen are the daughters of a fisherman. Magdalen leaves her fiancé, Peter, to run off to the big city. Joan and Peter marry. Magdalen's return years later causes trouble for the marriage, but Joan and Peter remain together in the end.

The prohibition is in full swing and Egypt Hagen, a new woman, is the constant subject of controversy in her religious small town. After a scandalous night of partying leaves her publicly shamed, she finds unlikely companionship in the town's new reverend. As their bond intensifies under the watchful eye of concerned townsfolk, her sullied reputation threatens his standing as a respected clergyman.

Rosalie Lawrence, a dancing star on Broadway, falls for rich Hugh Thompson. His parents disapprove and want him to marry Barbara Royce, so he and Rosalie marry secretly. However, Hugh isn't quite the man he seems, as Rosalie is soon to find out.

At a dance on his parents' plantation in the early nineteenth century, Harry Rutter wins a duel with Langdon Willetts, but loses his fiancée, Kate Seymour, who disapproves of fighting. He is thrown out of his family home and forced to stay with others. Tired of accepting charity, Harry leaves for South America. Now he returns a rich man to a ruined home.

An old inventor is robbed of his inventions by an unscrupulous rich man. When the inventor dies, his daughter Violet goes to New York and joins the "Follies," where she is advertised as "The Belle of New York." The rich man's son is infatuated with Violet, and is introduced to her anonymously as Jack. When Violet learns of Jack's identity, she casts him off. He takes to drinking and she joins the Salvation Army. Jack is attacked in an underworld saloon just as Violet enters in Salvation Army attire. She nurses him at his home. When Jack's father discovers with whom Jack is in love, he begs forgiveness for the wrong he did Violet's father.

The film opens with an animated prologue about Adam and Eve, by Tony Sarg. The viewer is then introduced to a young couple, Eve and Jim, who are having troubles in their marriage. Eve is frustrated by housework and dreams of living a wealthier lifestyle. While out shopping, Eve runs into an old flame, Don, who has earned his fortune overseas.

Allayne Norman's husband Bruce is a gambler and drunkard who kills her artist cousin in an argument. Bruce flees the studio with Allayne and their son, and places his identifying documents in the pockets of an amnesiac man. To avoid the consequences of his actions, Allayne identifies the man as her husband. When Bruce returns, he tries to kill the man but is shot instead. The man regains his memory and is cleared of wrongdoing.

Marion Farnham, the wife of a struggling young physician, tires of her husband's neglect and elopes with Thomas Byrne. Thomas promises to retrieve Marion's little daughter Marna from Frederick, but, finding the house empty, he reports that the child has died. Frederick, however, has merely taken Marna to the country to begin a new life.

The Rector of a wealthy church loses the sympathy and support of parishioners when he preaches the doctrine of Christ to sacrifice worldly goods. He establishes a mission among the lower classes and, although he is beaten for his efforts, he gains happiness by doing good.

A village schoolteacher, unaware that Eben, the village carpenter, is in love with her, marries a surveyor and has a son, David. Eben, distraught at losing her, goes away, and he returns years later to find that David, now an orphan, is running away from his cruel foster father, the squire. Eben befriends David, and when the town is destroyed by a storm the two escape harm. An epilog shows David 25 years later as a successful businessman, happily married, helping to rebuild the town.

A Belgian countess escapes to America to avoid a loveless marriage and finds romance and adventure in a mountain village in Tennessee.

Model Jacqueline Lee meets Barker Garrison, a wealthy bachelor. Scheming to give her a life of luxury, he invents an old lady who leaves her fortune to Jacqueline. At a party given by Jacqueline, Garrison's intoxicated friend Rupert Lewis--who knows of the scheme--confesses his love for Jacqueline; rejected, he proposes a toast to "the old lady in Rio de Janeiro ... Barker Garrison"; and discovering the truth, Jacqueline disappears. Meanwhile, Garrison travels over Europe in search of her, and later, in New York, while motoring, he sees a girl fall beneath the wheels of a car and finds her to be Jacqueline. When she recovers, he learns that she has become a famous actress under an assumed name. Perceiving that he loves her, she promises never to leave him.