Marianne falls in love with con man Valentine who uses their relation to get her father's endorsement on a money-raising scheme. He runs off with the money and Marianne, later dumping her. Her sister Laura loves Dr. Lindley although she knows he loves Marianne. Marianne returns and marries a...
Wildly optimistic chatterbox Eva Lovelace is a would-be actress trying to crash the New York stage. She attracts the interest of a paternal actor, a philandering producer, and an earnest playwright. Is she destined for stardom, or will she fade like a morning glory after its brief blooming?
After a roustabout sailor avoids being shanghaied in 1850s San Francisco, his audacity helps him rise to a position of power in the vice industry of the infamous Barbary Coast.
A young pacifist after refusing on principle to defend her sweetheart's honor and being banished in disgrace, joins a riverboat troupe as a singer, acquires a reputation as a crackshot after a saloon brawl in which the villain of the piece accidentally kills himself with his own gun, falls in love...
After obtaining a divorce from his second wife Emily, Roy Tappan marries Dora Carson, who has just divorced her husband. Left poor with two children, Emily marries Walter Heath, a former suitor, then discovers that she cannot live with her new husband because the divorce is not legal in her home...
"Happy" MacDonald and his unfaithful wife own a Prohibition era night club. On this eventful night, he is threatened by bootleggers, and the club's star dancer falls in love with a young socialite who drinks to forget a personal tragedy, among other incidents.
Clever vamp Eve Quinn has generally had her way with men, while her quiet, deep-thinking sister Cornelia cannot bring herself to deliberately pursue them. So Eve wins Lewis Dike, whom Cornelia loves. Immediately after her wedding Eve beings a series of dangerous adventures with Wilfred Meadows....
The crotchety dean of Pinkham University blames the "bad behavior of the school's female students on a dress shop owned by Helene, and informs her he's shutting her shop down. Meanwhile, her boyfriend Napoleon has invented a plaster that restores youth. The dean accidentally sits on the plaster and...
A woman and her children escape severe poverty and abuse. She successfully betters her family's condition while living with the secret that she killed her abusive husband in order to protect her children from him.
Kurt Anderson is the tyrannical manager of a New York department store in financial straits. He thinks nothing of firing an employee of more than 20 years or of toying with the affections of every woman he meets. One such victim is Madeline, a beautiful young woman in need of a job. Anderson hires...
John and Irene Emerson's marriage begins well enough, but it is not long before John becomes less attentive. Feeling neglected, Irene spends more time with her girl friends, and John, consequently, falls prey to the vamping wiles of his secretary, Jean Ralston. When John comes home from the theater...
A young woman borrows money from her boss for her wedding dress. After the marriage he asks to be repaid, and she--not liking to ask her husband for money--writes a check on her husband's account. When he discovers that his wife has written a check to another man and not told him, complications...
On board his trading schooner in the South Pacific, tough sea captain Black Pawl confronts his own son, who has grown up in his father's shadow and reflects only his dark side.
Stratton's café is a popular place with the people of Cottonia, a wealthy cotton town on the banks of the Mississippi, installs flood-proof doors as a safeguard against an overflow of the river; when a flood comes, it appears that the entire town will be submerged. Trapped in Stratton's cafe,...
A chorus girl gets stranded in a small midwestern town. Against her better judgement, she hooks up with a smooth-talking con artist who says he can help her get out of town.
Engaged to Harley Jones, fickle Phoebe Mabee flirts with Anson Newton. She and Harley, as a result, break their engagement, but within six months they are reconciled and married. Phoebe becomes a mother, and when Harley is sent abroad by his business firm she and her two children go to a summer...
After being convicted of stealing some jewels, Annette Eldrige is sent to a reformatory administered by a sadistic and corrupt female warder. However, one of the board of trustees takes an interest in the new arrival and begins to investigate the management of the institution.
Despite the fact that he has a beautiful wife who loves him and a good home, gold-digger Lillian Loring discovers that Ralph Hedman is a pushover for her winsome wiles and ways. Ralph's wife, Alice, becomes suspicious when she sees them together at lunch one day. He asks for a divorce but Alice...
