When Mary and Fannie Graham, daughters of a good mother but a father with criminal instincts, are left motherless, Mary flees from her unhappy surroundings while Fannie, inheriting her father's disposition, remains and is raised as a thief.
Hugon, a Canadian backwoodsman who is respected for his strength both of limb and of character, falls in love with Marie even though she has another sweetheart, a young man named Gabriel. Realizing that Marie favors Gabriel, Hugon good-naturedly offers to help the boy develop muscles and stamina but soon abandons the hopeless task. Meanwhile, Roque and his group of crooked surveyors have made plans to swindle the woodsman out of his property.
Lucille, a beautiful and romantic young woman, marries John Linforth, a wealthy businessman, who is twice her age, and too distracted by his business affairs to give her the attention she craves.
Jack Lane (William Stowell) has made an invention for photographing wild animals. It consists of a camera with a trigger -- when the trigger is stepped on by a passing animal, a flash goes off and the camera shoots the picture. Lane goes up to the mountains to try out his new contraption. When a recluse refuses to let him spend the night in his cabin, Lane goes to sleep out of doors, with the camera set up near by. In the middle of the night, he is awakened by the flash and the sound of gunshots. Trekking back to his own cabin the next day, he develops the picture, which is of a girl holding a rifle. He returns to the recluse's cabin where he is arrested for murder.
"Wild Cat" Betsey Dawley, whose father, "Handsome Harry," was disowned by the proud Dawley family of Greenburgh, Kentucky, meets and thoroughly charms her snobbish cousin Virginia's fiancé, John Davidson, at a picnic. At the start of the Civil War, John becomes a Union officer, while Betsey and her father staunchly defend the South. When Confederate Colonel Morgan, the leader of the intrepid band known as "Morgan's Men," commissions a young horseman to deliver an important message to the Dawley mansion, the rider is shot and Betsey takes his place, breaking through the lines and successfully accomplishing the mission.
Lois Fox, upon whose shoulder is branded a Chinese idiograph resembling the letters "A. Y.," is rescued from a gang of Chinese ruffians by Brice Ferris. His servant Ming, in attempting to steal from her finger a ring that bears a mysterious green seal, is killed, and soon afterward a stranger named Strang arrives, also in search of the girl. Despite Brice's efforts to protect her, Lois is abducted and taken to the headquarters of Lao Wing, the leader of a secret Chinese society known as the Tong.
Lydia Jansen is happily married to a young customs inspector, but she harbors a dark secret. She is addicted to smoking opium or in slang parlance “hop.” To keep her secret, she willingly pays the blackmail her maid extorts from her having learned of Lydia’s habit through her own fiancée who is part of the ring importing the devil’s brew. Something unknown to all is that the operation is run by Lydia’s father an important politician in the city where this all occurs. As her husband’s investigation tightens the noose on the organization Lydia faces a crisis.
Louis and August Siever, the twins sons of a German father and American mother, are traveling in Europe when war breaks out. August joins the Kaiser's army, but Louis, a supporter of the United States, is practically made a prisoner in Berlin for a year while he tries to prove his American citizenship. After a violent confrontation with Louis, August steals his brother's passport and leaves for New York with Gerda Anderson, a German spy.
Framed by police inspector Finch and his managing editor, R. H. Steadman, to cover up their own crooked work, reporter John Mull languishes in prison until he escapes, determined to wreak vengeance.
Diminutive heroine Ella Hall dreams that she's Cinderella, and that a wealthy gentleman of her acquaintance (played by Leonard) is her Prince Charming. All of this takes place during a musical stage production of Cinderella, a sequence distinguished by its authentic backstage atmosphere.
Miner Dan Stuyvesant finally strikes it rich, but on his way to report his claim, he is shot. When Jack Dedlow, the head of a gang of outlaws, hears this news, he rides to Stuyvesant's cabin intending to secure the claim for himself. There the outlaws find Stuyvesant's daughter Hilda, the sweetheart of Tom Flynn, and are about to draw cards for her when Dago Sam pulls out his guns and spirits her out the door. Because Tom is his only friend, Sam determines to protect Hilda from the gang, but when Tom suspiciously questions his intentions toward Hilda, Sam decides to live up to the town's poor opinion of him.
A young working girl, struggling to support her family on her meager salary, desperately wishes for a new pair of shoes.
A 1917 American silent comedy film
An Indian scholar seeks an American colleague who is working on a powerful explosive, trying to get to his formula by taking advantage of his drinking problem.
When her husband, struggling lawyer Horace Dillingham, is unable to provide adequate money for her insatiable desire for expensive cherries, Kitty Dillingham goes to work as a stenographer for him. One day while Horace is out of the office, Kitty mistakes Jonas Collamore, a defendant in a divorce suit for whom Horace is acting, for an important client. Kitty agrees to lunch, and, swallowing many maraschino cherries along with their cocktails, becomes drunk. Jonas takes her to a nearby inn where they are followed by Mrs. Collamore's detectives, who then summon Mrs. Collamore and her lawyer Horace.
A runaway becomes a thief and is sentenced to a reformatory.
Ann Reid moves to the city to study opera but is discouraged by her teachers and so becomes a cabaret singer instead. At Balvini’s cabaret, Ann’s friend Dolly introduces her to Ted Vane, who asks Ann to be his wife.
A ruthless, miserly millionaire wakes up one day and finds that a quarantine sign reading "Danger Within!" has been tacked onto the front door of his mansion, and guards have been stationed outside to make sure that no one enters or leaves the building. The only other person in the house is Dolly, his chief clerk's six-year-old daughter, who went into the house out of curiosity just before it was quarantined.
A Playboy inherits a Western ranch on the condition that he shall run it properly for 6 months. A villain makes an attempt to distract him from reaching the goal, but he, no longer the wastrel of yore, persists and becomes full owner of the property.
A married society couple (Dorian and Warren) persuade an unmarried pair (Valentino and Myers) to take their places at a party while they pretend to be the servants.
