In this adventure, an American is forced by smugglers to sail his boat from Barcelona to Tangiers. The ruthless fugitives then kill his son, and harm his shipmate, sending the pilot, himself an ex-smuggler into such a rage that he kills two gang members and helps police capture the survivors and bring them to justice.

The wanton dancer Thais, tries to entice Paphnutius from becoming a monk but fails. He later returns to reclaim her soul and follow in his footsteps. They attempt to live lives of simplicity, but the pull of worldliness is too strong.

Loey Tsing, the first love of Chan Wang, is sold into slavery by her father. Although Chan marries another, he still loves Loey; only the birth of a son relieves his unhappiness. He adores little Chan Toy even though he finds nothing to like about his wife.

During the Second World War, a special constable and former solicitor is called upon to defend his son who is accused of the theft of a car

Mr. Reeder, a somewhat eccentric old gentleman employed by the Director of Public Prosecutions, gets it into his head to break up a counterfeiting ring.

2035. Anna, a lonely computer coder, has been nurturing an illegal romance with an AI in a computer simulation for the past six months. When her company uncovers the affair, she's forced into a desperate battle to save her precious relationship.

An old knight weds his dead friend's daughter but she gives herself to an Italian Don to bear an heir.

King Henry VIII smitten with Anne Boleyn wishes to displace his estimable Queen Catherine for her. He appeals to Cardinal Wolsey to set aside the tenets of the Church and consent to his divorce from the Queen. The cardinal absolutely refuses to do anything so inimical to his office, as representative of the Holy See. Angered King Henry induces the Archbishop of Canterbury to call a special council through which he divorces himself from Queen Catherine. In punishment for his refusal to accede to the king's wishes, the cardinal is exiled to Leicester Abbey where he dies three days afterward, conscious that he had sustained the sacredness of his office, a martyr to his faith and of service to his king.

Released in the US in 1940 while a drive was being staged in Ireland to stop the smuggling of munitions across the Ulster border. The story involves a family, the Muldoons, living in a village on the Ulster border. Pamela Wood, the daughter, is being romanced (and romancing back) border-guard Lian Gaffney. A damper is dumped on the romance when her brother, Max Adrian, is recognized as one of the rebels. He is caught by the guards, but manages to escape after saving the life of Gaffney.

Instead of accepting a well-to-do suitor, an orphan marries a tramp as a bet, but he turns out to be an English peer on the run for a murder he did not commit.

Sally Bishop, a headstrong young girl falls for a trashy novelist and insidiously enters his household. This prompts her former fiancé to conspire with the author's wife to expose her foolishness.

Despondent over the infidelity of his wife, William McCabe wanders on the waterfront considering suicide, but instead he saves the life of Shark Moran. Moran gives McCabe a job on his lightship, where McCabe enjoys the solitude and falls in love with Ann Reynolds, the daughter of the captain of the supply ship.