1922
Russell Carrington accepts the blame for a murder charge to protect Rita, the woman he loves, from being accused of killing her husband. He escapes the police, and in a fishing village he assumes the name of Carr and is about to marry Dorothy Wheeler, the town belle, when detectives hired by Rita break up the ceremony and arrest him. Refusing to defend himself, Carrington is sentenced to life imprisonment but is released a year later as the result of the statement of "Sly Sam," a burglar who saw Rita shoot her husband. Dorothy, who has been living with a wealthy aunt in New York, is about to marry wealthy Ross Gunther, but Carrington is released and visits her home on the night of her engagement party. He thrashes a newspaper reporter who threatens to expose her affair with him, and the lovers are happily reunited.
1915
When Jimmie Collins, a pickpocket, is arrested and brought before Captain Callahan of the Tenth, he is surprised because he is lodged in a cell. Jimmie claims acquaintanceship with Bill McFarlin, a corrupt political boss, and he sneers at Captain Callahan when he is ordered to be placed behind the cell bars.
Billie Benton, a cub reporter, goes to the home of Violet Reynolds, a society girl and settlement worker, and asks for an interview, which is refused. Billie returns to the reportorial room, expresses his failure and the city editor assigns Ned Pelton, another reporter, to get the story.
Archie Sheldon, determining to go to New York City, is given a letter by his mother to Thatcher Thole, Gotham's most unscrupulous financier. She tells her son that Thole is an old friend of the family, and will undoubtedly give him a start in life.
1921
The wife of sculptor Roger Heath is killed by a maniac because of Roger's madly jealous admirer Olivia Larkin. To care for his home and son Peter, Roger hires Irish immigrant Nora O'Hallahan as a nursemaid whom he realizes is possessed by the soul of his departed wife.
1924
As a boy, Raoul is reared by an Arab tribe in Algerian Sahara. Years later, as a refined Europeanized gentleman, he falls in love with Barbara, an officer's daughter, who rejects him when she discovers his background. Affecting a raid, he captures her and then secretly buys her at a slave auction. When she is rescued by French troops, however, his ancestry is established and they find happiness together.
1919
Faith’s life is shattered when her lover dies. Her brother Job locks her away in a lighthouse, but she jumps from the tower rather than be imprisoned. Faith's daughter, however, lives on. The girl Eve grows into her teens, sheltered from the world by her puritanical uncle. But Eve nevertheless manages to encounter a young man, Phillip Blake. When Phillip returns for Eve, he has to deal with her crusty, malevolent guardian….
1927
What must a man do in order to put an end to his bachelorhood? For George Finch, one of nature's white mice and probably the worst artist ever to put brush to canvas, there are many obstacles. Undoubtedly the greatest is his beloved Molly's fearsome stepmother, Mrs. Waddington, who has her eye on an eligible English lord for a son-in-law. Luckily, George has an ally in sharp-witted Hamilton Beamish, an old family friend of the Waddingtons, not to mention George's butler, Mullett, and his light-fingered girlfriend, Fanny, whose valuable skills are of particular interest to the would-be father-in-law.
1916
Steel mill owner Sarah Maitland has raised her two children, Blair and Nannie, to be honest and caring, however Blair disappoints her when he seduces the wife of his best friend and breaks up her marriage. No one is happy but it takes a near fatal accident to set things right.
1914
A colonel saves a prince's life when he joins a club of men who draw lots to kill one another.
Young Virgie's father, Captain Herbert Cary, is a Confederate soldier. During the Civil War, Virgie, along with her slave Uncle Billy and her mother, are caught between the lines. While Virgie's father is fighting, her family is visited by Union soldiers, including Colonel Morrison, who is assigned to capture her father. Virgie inadvertently helps Morrison, by singing "Dixie" to him and then hiding her father. In the end, Virgie and her father are able to escape, and Virgie even sings "Polly Wolly Doodle" with the Union soldiers and hugs her father, now a Union officer,
1996
A man breaks into a flat, startling the occupant. They argue about the new girlfriend of the 'burglar', who's come to get her stuff. Then a third man bursts out of the cupboard...