Although a female, gunfighter "Colonel Billy" is feared by the men of Rattlesnake Gulch, a mining camp in California. The women, however, won't have anything to do with her because of stories about her "loose ways" during the Gold Rush. One day Gerald Morton, an actor, arrives at the camp from San Francisco with his wife Mabel, their baby and preacher Albert Atherton As a prank, the townspeople send Atherton to board with Billy, who is in love with a gold prospector named Faro Bill. Atherton convinces Billy to change her ways; however, Morton strikes gold, and the resulting news reaches San Francisco and attracts a new and different element to Rattlesnake Gulch, resulting in a need for Billy's skills to be used again.

Francis Byrd is in love with circus acrobat, and daughter of the show's owner, La Belle, and tries to join the show to be near her. However, his rival Oscar Thrust is the keeper of a "Man-Eating Gorilla" named Bimbo, who's a featured act.

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

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.

Mistakenly believing that she has inherited a large estate from her father, Olivia Sherwood spends money wantonly. In reality, her funds are supplied by unscrupulous attorney Arnold West, whose ulterior motive is to possess her. When she falls in love with wealthy Richard Burbank, West becomes enraged. At a party, West confronts Olivia with the truth and threatens to expose her unless she marries him. Olivia frantically attempts to escape his advances and as West pursues her, he falls down the stairs and breaks his neck. Burbank overhears the entire confrontation and forgives Olivia, and they marry.

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.

Peep O'Day, an orphan in a small Kentucky town, falls heir to a small fortune and begins to make up for all the lost pleasure of childhood, but Sublette, a crooked attorney, arranges for an eastern belle to show up as Peep's "niece" to steal his fortune.

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.

Bill Clayton is known as Broadway Bill because he is the most prominent Bill in the night life of the white way. Muriel loves Bill, but loathes his mode of life, and for her sake he goes to Underwood's lumber camp to work the alcohol out of his system. Hardigan. the foreman, thinks he is sent to spy upon his actions and makes several efforts to get rid of him, but in the end Bill thrashes the foreman, takes his place and wins the girl, though not before a curious chain of cross, purposes.

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.

Alias "the Dancer," fashionable society crook Jimmy Burke is hot on the trail of the Brent diamonds. Upon learning that Molly Brent and her diamonds are the stars of an amateur play, Jimmy obtains the leading man's part and devises a plan to steal the jewels. Molly falls in love with her leading man, who plans to switch the gems with fakes during the performance. After the play, the police question the couple and Molly declares that the robbery was part of the drama. When she discovers Jimmy's deed, she begins to cry and "the Dancer," realizing that he is in love with his victim, renounces his profession.

The story of a girl who rebelled against the "double standard" of morals, and demanded that women should have as much right to expect virtue in the man they are going to marry as a man expects of a woman.