Ezra Hickman, of Kankakee, is a political aspirant. At a reception in Washington with his wife and daughter Amy he meets the Ambassador of Selim Bey, the ruler of a small European kingdom, Vergania. The Ambassador, seeking an American girl for his ruler, paints a glowing picture of Vergania to Hickman's wife, with the result that she persuades her husband to accept the American Consulate at. Vergania. Amy, the daughter, is enamored of Lieutenant Brice of the U.S. Navy, and reluctantly she agrees to leave him and go with her family.

A villain attempts to win the love of a pretty fisher girl, who is in love with a village youth. The villain finally kidnaps the girl and carries her out to a rock at low tide, where he ties her. He stands on the shore hoping that the rising water will force her to promise to marry him. The water rises higher and higher, tremendous waves dashing over the girl, and when it seems impossible for her to live another minute her sweetheart arrives with a crowd of the village people and rescues her.

Father wants Mabel to marry a little, wealthy shrimp. She is in love with Charlie, a big, strapping fellow. Mabel is locked up in the house, but her lover sets the house on fire, and In the confusion runs to the minister's house with her. Father and his choice pursue, but Mabel and her lover hide in the chimney. Father sticks around with a big gun, and Mabel and her lover make up as negroes and are married, father being persuaded to act as best man.

Jones is broke. His girl is giving a birthday party, and her various suitors give her costly presents. Jones finds a beautiful lavaliere, which be gives to Mabel, and wins her heart. He is chosen as the foreman of a jury, and when petty offenders are brought to trial turns a deaf ear to all pleas for mercy, gaining the hatred of the other jurors. Finally a man is brought up who is to he tried for stealing the necklace Jones found. A strong case is shown, and all the other jurors want to find him guilty, but Jones holds out for an acquittal. Mabel comes into the court room and sits alongside of the complainant. The necklace is seen and an uproar takes place. Jones is accused as a thief and in a highly melodramatic manner takes a huge vial from his pocket, drinks the contents and falls back dead.

Even though he disapproves of the harshness with which his father, the Colonel, treats his employees, Wayne Craighill joins the old man's mining business. Adding to the strain between father and son, Wayne soon falls in love with Jean, the daughter of a small mine owner whom the Colonel wants to put out of business.

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.

Bee Haven, a little country girl from Missouri, wins a Charleston contest and goes to New York to pursue a theatrical career, accompanied by Charlie Ross, a bucolic sheik. Her country attire merely amuses the stage managers, but Tom Gatesby, a backer, persuades Bozoni, a cabaret owner, to give her a job. She innocently accepts money from Bozoni to furnish a luxury apartment; and when disillusioned Bozoni cancels the payments for her furniture and new clothes, Bee tries to avoid the gown-collectors, but they retrieve her gown and fur coat. In desperation, she joins a revue chorus, doing a lingerie number that results in a fight with Valentia, the star of the show. Tom rescues Bee from her precarious position, and all ends happily.

The widower Jakob Vindås lives with his daughter and his mother in a small west coast fishing community.

Short film about the title subject played for laughs.

In the college play, Tom and his room-mate, "Bunch," take prominent and successful parts, Tom as the hero and "Bunch" as the heroine, in which he is an excellent female impersonator. The day after the performance, "Bunch" makes an engagement to take a real chorus girl to dinner. Unexpectedly his mother comes to college to visit him and he makes Tom take the girl.

To start a little in advance of our story, Lord Rintoul, of the English nobility, finds a little Gypsy girl three years old, who had been deserted by her parents. Fifteen years later, Gavin Dishart, the Little Minister, receives an appointment, his first, at Thrums, Scotland. This was made possible through the self-sacrifices of his widowed mother, to educate him for the ministry. The community of Thrums is made up of weavers, who work hard, have little and accomplish much. They are ultra-religious and look upon their pastor with such reverence that he is a little lower than the angels. While naturally intelligent, they are grounded in dogma and intolerance. Just after the Little Minister takes charge of the "Auld Licht Kirk" and the Manse, the weavers resent a reduction, by the manufacturers, in their pay and a strike is declared.

Orphaned after the death of their mother, Nancy Grimm and her baby sister Ellen are taken to the country where Ellen is adopted by the wealthy Walsh family. Nancy keenly feels the loss of her sister, and when the judge rules that she cannot visit Ellen without permission, she throws herself onto a bench, winning the sympathy of young attorney Chester Noble. Nancy is then placed in the Wick's home where she is treated as a servant. Miserable, Nancy cuts off her hair and, dressed as a boy, runs away.

A poor shopgirl is offered a "good time" for a week by the son of her employer. She accepts, but the offer is misunderstood by her brother, who informs the girl's parents of her "fling."

After Neila Pendleton's father dies, leaving his wife and daughter penniless, the avaricious Mrs. Pendleton decides to marry Neila to the highest bidder. At the cost of her daughter's reputation, Mrs. Pendleton accepts money from elderly broker Wilbur Simons, and later tries to force Neila into a marriage with a dissolute old millionaire named Hale Faxon.

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.

Karl Sterner falls for Jenny, a beautiful young woman from an impoverished background, and soon discovers that he cannot control her willful personality - which proves to cause many conflicts in their marriage.

Inconsiderate millionaire John Benson, philanthropist Oliver North, courageous Langdon Crane, wealthy idler Robert Curtis and Lydia Benson are among the passengers on an ocean liner that is sunk by a German submarine. Carried away by the currents to a tropical island, the castaways endure hardships which bring out their true natures.

When young inventor Bob Moore fails in his efforts to provide his father, a safe manufacturer, with a lock that is burglar proof, he contacts The "Eel," the most talented safecracker in the city, to offer him a job in his factory. The Eel, deciding to go straight, accepts the offer, but when he later learns that Irene Hardin has been given a valuable necklace by her father, The Eel plans one last job to secure Irene's pearls.

Mrs. Standing, an old-fashioned country mother, sacrifices to put her son John through college so that he might have a better life. Upon completing school, John goes to the city where his financial success blinds him to the basic values taught to him by his mother.

While waiting in a hotel lobby for instructions from his government, Ludwig Schumann, an agent of the Black Legion, is enchanted by Marion Washburn, the daughter of a Texas senator. As he is about to speak to the girl, Schumann is stunned to see a young American enter who could be his double. The American is James Walbert, whom Schumann's contact mistakes for the agent. The contact passes to Walbert a photograph of a woman spy, Wanda Bartell, whom the agent is to meet aboard a steamer. Walbert realizes the mistake and determines to protect his country.