1919
A young woman goes to visit friends but mistakenly rings at the wrong address. She is greeted and taken in out of the storm by a handsome young man to whom she is immediately attracted. What she does not know, however, is that this young man has been fleeced by her father and has sworn vengeance against him.
1918
Ann Dickson's newly wealthy parents become obsessed with breaking into society, but the young misfit is more interested in studying modern slang and wearing outrageous outfits. She tolerates but does not love "Freddie" Pierson, the useless young playboy her parents have selected for her. On a downtown jaunt, Ann slightly injures a newsboy in a car accident and in this way meets policeman Carey Phelan. She invites him to an outing she has organized for the boy and his pals, and the two fall in love. Ann's parents follow her to the picnic, and after a series of misunderstandings, everyone winds up in jail. Carey reveals to Ann that he is a millionaire's son who, tired of wasting his life, had joined the police force. The chief of police, an old friend of the Phelan family, holds the outraged parents in custody while Ann and Carey sneak away to get married.
1916
Polly Eccles is a "ragged girl" living in a dank slum who is responsible for her sickly four-year-old brother, Billy. After a doctor advises that Billy needs a healthier climate to recover, Polly packs their few belongings and decides they will walk to California. While hitchhiking along the way with their dog, the siblings are given a lift by Kirk Drummond, a young man who happens to be driving to California himself. Upon arriving, Kirk’s wealthy father, John Drummond, is initially horrified by his son's association with the "ragged" travelers. However, the story follows Polly’s trials as she attempts to navigate this new world and ensure her brother's health.
1915
A small boy, Bobby, substitutes some counterfeit which is intended for stage use for a real roll of bills. Two crooks steal the counterfeits on a sleeping car, and when they present one after the dinner which they hold in celebration they are promptly arrested.
When Rupert's uncle tells him he must quit his writing and offers him a real job in his tannery, the young man rises in his wrath and dramatically leaves his uncle's home, saying that he will go forth to the big city and carve out his fortune with his pen. After many hardships and cold rebuffs from the cruel publishers and editors he begins to despair
John Slocum has always been a decent young man. When he was twelve, his uncle Henry introduced him to little Bess De Voe, telling them that when they grew up they should marry. John's uncle sends him to the manager of a publishing house in New York with instructions to "give him a job for what it's worth and keep him until he succeeds."
1912
Irene and Helen are worshipers at the shrine of Frangiapani, the tenor of the hour. When he sings at a concert, they meet in Irene's room, take the printed program of the concert, and one of them plays the accompaniment of the song he is actually singing. Irene sees an advertisement for a maid and waitress at Madame Frangiapani's home. The wild thought enters her brain that if she applies and gets the position, she will be nearer her adored. She puts the plan into execution, gets the position, and is waiting for the signor to appear. He does appear in a towering rage, at an adverse criticism in a paper which he is holding in his hand. His wife tries to soothe him and treats him like a little, unreasonable, bad-tempered child.
In the college play, Tom and his room-mate, "Bunch," take prominent and successful parts, Tom as the hero and "Bunch" as the heroine, in which he is an excellent female impersonator. The day after the performance, "Bunch" makes an engagement to take a real chorus girl to dinner. Unexpectedly his mother comes to college to visit him and he makes Tom take the girl.
Ada Prentice, a girl in a knitting factory, is forbidden by her parents to marry John Horrocks. She confides in her Aunt Sarah, the oldest worker in the factory. Aunt Sarah tells Ada that she has every right to live her own life and to marry the partner of her own choice. The old woman knows what she is talking about, since in her youth she had given up her chance for happiness by rejecting the only man she could have loved.
1927
Marianna Miller, who together with her sister Sarah pounds the pavements, looking for a job. After a period of starvation and deprivation Marianna is hired as secretary to duplicitous businessman Philip Hancock.
Not one but two of Charlie Chaplin impersonators, Harry Mann and Monty Banks, a film directed by Charley Chase still under the name of Charles Parrott. They go driving around town experiencing various car theft problems.
1920
Not being able to afford fine stockings, a young artist paints his wife's legs to create the illusion for her dance performance in a cabaret. It works so successfully that other women want to follow her example, which leads to several fights with angry husbands and lovers.
