Mary Miles Minter

Clarence Burton

Lizette Thorne

Margaret Shelby

Josephine Taylor

A father who despises his daughter, a boyfriend who refuses to marry the girl he knocked up, and a mother caught in the middle.

Tomboy Bess Aiken grows up quickly when her mother deserts her father to elope with wealthy Easterner Vernon Treloar. Left alone with her father, Bess begins to long for feminine companionship, and when an opportunity arises for Bess to visit her newly-remarried mother, her father consents. The little girl soon finds herself in a fairytale world of beautiful gowns and extravagant luxury. Believing that anything her mother does must be correct, Bess soon learns to smoke and drink, much to the displeasure of Kirke Livingston, who loves her but fears she has inherited her mother's weaknesses. Bess disregards his warnings until one day she finds her mother embracing another man. Disillusioned, she departs immediately for her father's cabin, traveling through the woods all night. At daybreak, Kirke finds her and wins her hand in marriage.

Bob Reynolds, a construction engineer, is constructing a dam. Finding himself in financial trouble, he is persuaded by John Brand to use a cheaper--but far inferior--cement to replace the cement he's been using. Brand, who is determined to ruin Reynolds, then talks him into buying worthless stock. Finding himself in desperate straits, Reynolds forges a check using Brand's name. Unfortunately the finished dam breaks and many people are killed. Under suspicion by the authorities, Reynolds desperate searches for a way out of his worsening situation.

When a taxi carrying socialite Ruth Darrow drives into the middle of a gun battle between hijacker Kid Gloves and a trio of bootleggers, Ruth is injured. She is taken to a nearby apartment, and The Kid helps to care for her. John Stone, Ruth's fiance and a bootlegger with a respectable front, finds them together and blackmails The Kid into marrying the girl.

To spite her fiancé, who claims to know how to handle women, Rosamond engages in reckless behavior, including racing cars and getting arrested. Climax: After surviving a car crash, she is captured by criminals but eventually rescued, leading to her submissive reform.

Jacqueline Floriot is driven from her home by her husband Louis, a deputy attorney of Paris, because of his unjust suspicions regarding her relations with another man. Floriot forbids Jacqueline to see her baby boy, who is dangerously ill, and when informed that the boy believes her dead, she attempts suicide.

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.

Reporter Frank Sloan, investigating the disappearance of a Chinese slave girl in Chinatown which leads to opium addiction, job loss, and personal ruin, until a major murder brings him back into the story, revealing the dark underbelly of the district.

When Rosamond, a convent girl, discovers that her mother is Baby Brabant, a notorious queen of Petworth's gambling house, her ideals are shattered and she denounces her mother's life.