The TARDIS crew lands in the Himalayas of Cathay in 1289, their ship badly damaged, and are picked up by Marco Polo's caravan on its way along the fabled Silk Road to see the Emperor Kublai Khan. The story concerns the Doctor and his companions' attempts to thwart the machinations of Tegana, who attempts to sabotage the caravan along its travels through the Pamir Plateau and across the treacherous Gobi Desert, and ultimately to assassinate Kublai Khan in Peking, at the height of his imperial power.

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.

During World War I, John Bowman, the captain of a tramp steamer, refuses to allow his wife and daughter Shirley to accompany him on a long voyage because he fears that the ship may be torpedoed. Before his departure, he entrusts his life insurance policy to shipping agent Sam Bullard, who, unknown to John, once courted Mrs. Bowman. Shirley, a clairvoyant, has a vision in which her father's ship is torpedoed, and the next day, Sam reports that the ship has been sunk and John killed.

Upon seeing millionaire Lee Brooks's picture in the paper, Julie Le Fabrier, a romantic young model in Madame Swan's dress shop, immediately falls in love with him. Soon afterwards, Julie is sent to the Grand Tides Hotel to deliver a dress to Madame Ricardo, an attractive young woman whose bills are paid by Lee's lovestruck father, Mason Brooks. Having seen her husband, whom she believed to be in South America, on the grounds, Madame Ricardo deserts the hotel, so Julie dons the gown and masquerades as Mason's mistress.

Angela, a lovely young woman of eighteen, lives with her grandmother in Virginia but knows very little about her mother, Lady Eldone, who after the death of Angela's father, moved to Europe and married an English army captain. When Captain Eldone is reported dead, Lady Eldone returns to the United States determined to marry a wealthy man.

To help his dying father, assistant bank cashier Arthur Mansfield enters a fake sum in the bank's account book, but before carrying out the pilferage, he confesses to cashier Slayton, his superior. Slayton, who needs money to pay for his unsuccessful speculations, goes at night to take the money that Mansfield planned to embezzle, so that Mansfield will take the blame.

Lieutenant Commander Colton, U.S.N., is in love with Caroline Austen, daughter of a prominent political power in Washington. Colton has a rival in James Archer, a journalist of prominence, unscrupulous and secretly in league with the Ruanian Ambassador, who is endeavoring to obtain for his country inside information as to the United States naval resources.

Mr. Williams, a stern father and man of wealth, disinherits his son Hugh, for marrying Rose, a seamstress. Twenty years later, although Sose is practically supporting her sick husband, their little store is taken from them and they are obliged to move, with Martha, their daughter, to the tenement district.

A father-and-son team of cons gamble their firm’s assets. The son is caught investing money that doesn't belong to him and is indicted on a swindling charge. The plot gets spicy when the District Attorney handling the case is his former sweetheart's husband. This situation gives the DA an opportunity to prosecute his romantic rival.

When New York playwright Richard Warrington returns to his home town, Republican bosses nominate him for mayor. The Democrats, alarmed at Richard's popularity, decide to unearth a scandal that will ruin his chances of winning and quickly discover that, months before, actress Katherine Challoner had spent the night in Richard's apartment. Although it simply had been the result of Katherine's fainting spell, the home-town Democratic newspaper turns the overnight visit into an illicit rendezvous between two lovers.

In their small village, Romanian peasant girl Katinka Veche falls in love with the studious Jan Drakachu. Jan wins a scholarship to an American university eventually becoming a successful engineer. Unbeknownst to him, Katinka, whom he had to leave behind in the village, is sold into slavery by her cruel, dissolute father. Her owner, Victor Dravich, beats her into submission forcing her to become his mistress in his Syrian gambling den. When the house is raided, Dravich takes her on his travels around the world until they finally settle in a small Arizona mining camp. Broken, she sees Jan but is too ashamed to speak to him sending instead for her old tutor Boris. Upon arrival Boris kills Dravich but is shot by the sheriff. Katinka, now free, follows Jan to New York. After further travail the pair are finally reunited.

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.

Lisetta, the daughter of a fisherman, lives with her father and brother on the island of Capri. When Serrani, an Italian who has grown wealthy in New York, visits the island, he induces Lisetta to accompany him to America. There he abandons her and she becomes a dancer in an underworld café owned by "Dago" Joe, where she meets the artist Stanford Graham, who employs her as a model. Meanwhile, Lisetta's brother Domenic comes to New York to avenge his sister's dishonor.

After his defeat at the hands of "Spider" Flynn, the welterweight champion of Europe, boxer Jimmie Dolan and his trainer, Thomas Jefferson Jones, leave for a principality near Paris. Having lost all their money on the fight, Jimmie accepts Count Conrad's offer to impersonate Prince Frederick in return for a large sum of money.

Hartley, fascinated by the vampish Leonie, steals and serves a term in prison. Not satisfied with this downfall, Leonie again works her womanly charms upon Dr. Gerald, who is engaged to Johanna, the adopted daughter of Dr. McLean. Learning of the woman's designs on the young doctor, Hartley denounces her in Gerald's presence. In response, Gerald foolishly renounces Johanna and his friendship with Dr. McLean. However, when Leonie discovers that Johanna is her own daughter whom she had deserted as a child, she becomes conscience-stricken, gives up the young man and begs forgiveness.

Lieut. Governor Oliver Barnitz accedes to the governorship when his predecessor, failing to call out the militia during a riot at the Wilmot plant, is shot and killed by terrorist Oliver Poole. Faced with the dilemma of whether or not to commute the assassin's death sentence, Barnitz falls into a troubled sleep and dreams of being forced to cast judgment on his father in a similar position.

While waiting on a New York park bench for the return of her friends, country girl Jeanne Sterling meets Forrest Chenoweth, a rich young wastrel who, while drunk, registered for a marriage license with fortune-hunting Helen Dorr. Enchanted with Jeanne's innocence, Forrest proposes to Jeanne, and they are married by an alderman friend of Forrest's with the license that Forrest had taken out with Helen. That night Forrest drinks too much, falls in his room and kills himself. The scandal appears in the papers, forcing Jeanne to confess the marriage to her sweetheart Robert Pitcairn. However, Helen, in an attempt to acquire the Chenoweth fortune, claims to be Forrest's widow, thus disgracing Jeanne.

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.

Tommy Buckman, the ne'er-do-well son of dime store magnate John Buckman, is given one last chance to succeed by surveying a possible location in New England for the opening of another store in his father's chain. Arriving in the town of Winton, Tommy lands in jail and, disowned by his father, is bailed out by Nina Potter, whose father owns the only dime store in town.

From a Montana mining camp, a young man progresses to the society heights of New York, making his mark publicly as a dancer, but secretly as a gentleman burglar.