Slim Jim Carey, the leader of a criminal gang, is in reality a nobleman called Lord Talbois, and his daughter is the rightful heir to the family estate.
Richard Castleman, master of Winnecrest Hall in Louisiana, goes on a sea voyage recommended by his cousin and physician, Harry Chilton, who thereupon begins romancing Castleman's fiancée, Jeanne Lamont.
Captain Angus Swope (Noab Beery), known as The Black Yankee, skipper of the Golden Bough, treats his crew shamefully and he treats women no better, as evidenced by his handling of a woman he has abducted, together with her baby daughter, Mary (Sally Blaine), from seaman Newman (Willard Robertson).
A young woman agrees to marry the son of a well-known man in order to get a chance to take revenge on her new father-in-law, who she believes framed her own father who is now in prison.
Saxophone player Clyde meets a woman named Flowers, and teaches her to dance. He later discovers that gangster boss "Blackjack" is also in love with her.
Much-married and once successful writer Henry T. Aythecliff, now heavily in debt, summons his three ex-wives to his mansion, planning to extort a sizable amount of money from each.
Struggling artist Ned Templeton and his wife Joan are leading a poverty-stricken life in Paris. Threatened by starvation and eviction, Joan is forced to become a prostitute.
An Eastern boy is sent to the West to run the family's sheep ranch. The presence of sheep anger nearby cattlemen, who don't want to share their cattle's grazing lands with them, and their leader has no compunctions about resorting to drastic measures to protect his interests.
During the Civil War, Rachel Hayne, a young widow, is among those "held by the enemy" when her old family home is within the lines occupied by the Northern troops.
When respectable Lloyd Norwood becomes infatuated with moll Goldie Lewis, he falls into a life of debasement, which results in his being accused of the murder of gangland henchman Joe the Swell.
The carefree Countess Evelyn lives a life of luxury at her people’s expense. Even her 25th birthday must be celebrated with a bang, even though the coffers are empty and the people are waiting for their paychecks.
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.
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.