Canadian schoolteacher Julie Leneau becomes the bride of Geoffrey Arnold but is soon confronted by Claire who convinces her that she is Arnold's lawful wife. Fleeing into a blizzard Julie nearly perishes but is found by government official Hubert Randolph. They become snowbound and she later accepts his proposal to give her baby an honorable name. Moving to Jamaica Hubert rises in government and the couple are happy. However, when Geoffrey visits Julie realizes she still loves him and learning he has not been unfaithful Randolph surrenders his wife and her child to Geoffrey.

When the United States enters World War I, the widowed Helen worries that she will lose her only son David, who has just turned 21. Although David patriotically urges the employees at his factory to enlist, he reluctantly gives in to his mother's pleas to remain at home with her. When David is drafted, his panic-stricken mother alters the date on his birth certificate, although the later birth date implies that he is illegitimate. Disgusted, David enlists under an assumed name, thus shaming Helen, who confesses her dishonesty to the townspeople. Her son, now in uniform, then forgives her.

Tells of a waif from the sea, who on the death of her guardian and protector, is forced to make her own way in New York. Her lack of guile and sophistication wins her a place and esteem. Entering a romance which involves both father and son, the girl is the pivot around which revolve petty jealousies, aristocratic conventions and gambling affrays. She eventually casts aside the worthless son and marries the father.

The story of a happily married woman, Amy, who is greeted with temptation of riches beyond belief after her husband, Andrew, accepts a position at a Colorado Steel Mill.

John Maddox, Sr., who directs the Equity Trust Company with James Buckley, sends Henry Jenkins to steal a note of security from Buckley's safe, and in the struggle that ensues between Buckley and the burglar, the former is killed. Maddox claims that Buckley, failing in his scheme to steal from the company, committed suicide, and John Maddox, Jr., knowing that Buckley's daughter Beatrice is now penniless, breaks his engagement with her. Forced to earn her own living, Beatrice opens a candy factory, and with the help of her loyal friend, Robert Howard, the business becomes so successful that it presents a threat to Maddox's candy company. Maddox sends Jenkins to instigate a strike at Beatrice's factory, but when he is mortally wounded in a fight, he confesses everything. With her father's honor restored and her business flourishing, Beatrice happily agrees to marry Robert.

At her mother’s behest Kate Leigh marries wealthy Basil Kildare, owner of a Southern plantation called Storm. When Basil’s servant and mistress Mahaly protests bitterly he takes their shared son away from her. Kate discovers her new husband is a coarse and brutal alcoholic and turns for friendship to Dr. Jacques Benoix and his mother. When Basil becomes aware of their relationship, he finds the doctor and they have a brutal fight. Later Basil is found dead and Jacques is sentenced to life in prison. On her deathbed, Mahaly confesses that she killed Basil, leaving Kate and Jacques to begin a new life together.

Duplicity and double crosses run thick and fast when Ben Farraday forces Nan Kennedy to steal documents from Ben’s enemy John Lawson in exchange for his silence about her escapee brother’s whereabouts. Betrayed by all around her Nan resorts to deception to regain control of her life.

Nita, a former singer, loses her voice and husband. To support her child, she becomes a cafe dancer. When her husband dies, she leaves her child at a mission. Nita regains her voice, becomes an opera star and reunites with her child.

Larry Winthrop, the pampered son of an aristocratic Boston family, is loved by his wife, Eleanor, but she wants him to prove himself to her as a man.

Letty Shell, a clerk in a London brokerage office, is discouraged by her lack of fine clothes and social position. She becomes infatuated with Nevill Letchmere, a debonair idler from a good family, and believes that he wants to marry her, but after her boss, Bernard Mandeville, who has risen to power and wealth, and who wants to marry Letty, warns Letchmere to keep away from her, Letchmere confesses that he is married. Disappointed, Letty accepts Mandeville's proposal, but when she sees Mandeville's boorishness in a restaurant, she returns to Letchmere. Just as she is about to become his mistress, Letchmere receives word that his married sister has eloped with a lover. When he curses his sister for acting like a "shop girl," Letty realizes that he views her and her class without respect. She leaves and accepts the love of her faithful friend Richard Perry, a poor photographer, whose rich uncle is going to help him in business

John Kendall was brought up in a wealthy family, but when his father loses the family fortune and then dies, John is left penniless. He joins the army and rises to the rank of sergeant. He soon meets and falls in love with Edith Ferris, the daughter of Col. Dickinson. When he talks to her at a party, Lt. Burkett upbraids him for fraternizing with an officer's family. Edith's mother, not wanting her daughter getting involved with a lowly enlisted man, conspires with Lt. Burkett to discredit John.

New York confidence man "Silk" Wilkins ingratiates himself with millionaire Lawrence Gray, knowing Gray’s wife and daughter Zelda were lost in a flood eighteen years earlier. After promising to find Gray's daughter, Silk returns to his boardinghouse, where he finds Alice Sheldon, broke and about to commit suicide. Silk convinces Alice to pose as Zelda Gray and then notifies Lawrence via a note placed in an almond shell that he has found the lost daughter. Lawrence treats Alice so kindly that when Silk demands payment from her on Christmas morning, she refuses. Lawrence, who has overheard the conversation, enters and laughingly reveals that he had known of the frame-up all along. Grateful to Silk for finding him a wife, Lawrence writes the confidence man a large check.