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.
Becky Warder constantly indulges in the telling of little white lies. In an innocent effort to ease the troubled marriage of her quarreling friends Eve and Fred Lindon, Becky meets secretly with Fred, thereby constructing a web of deceit that leads Eve to suspect Becky of trifling with her husband's affections.
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.
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.
When Jack Dougan and Snatcher Nell, partners in crime as well as love, decide to purloin the gifts at the wedding of Madge Carr to James Cluney, Nell poses as a maid to gain entrance to the household.
She was a very modern young woman, was Miss Hobbs. Her ideas were about fifty years ahead of time. For one thing she hated men, thought them all brutes.
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.