Even though the Gommesens have been married for 25 years, they are still in love. They wake up happy on their silver wedding anniversary, but the peaceful atmosphere does not last.
When a circus troupe comes to a small, extremely conservative New England town, the residents go to their minister to have him protest the scandalous fact that the female tightrope walker wears a pair of pink tights.
Persuaded by a letter from her Aunt Agnes in America, Kitty McCarthy ( Olive Thomas ) travels from Ireland to New York City, there she meets Gordon Davis, a successful playwright, who directs her to her aunt's address on the East Side.
Vania is a political refugee who travels from Russia to the United States. But even in America, she is pursued by assassins known as "the Ring of Death" because she carries certain papers given to her back home by her father.
Notorious pirate Joaquin Santos lives by the saying, "Dead Men Tell No Tales". He conspires with the prominent Squire Rattray to take over and plunder the Lady Jermyn, a ship carrying a considerable amount of gold, and then destroy the ship and kill its crew.
Mrs. John Cleveland, victim of an overly-jealous husband, adopts a child but, fearing to bring it into her own household, furnishes another home for it, and places the little girl in charge of a nurse.
Wealthy cripple Markley finances the education of blacksmith's daughter Ruth. When she returns to their small town he asks to marry her, but she runs off with city worker Jim Dirk who is then killed in a subway accident.
Two factory owners, Hiram Maxwell and Nicholas Harding are almost polar opposites -- Maxwell pays careful attention to his employees needs, while Harding totally disregards them.