The "Firefly of France" is an elusive master criminal of uncertain loyalties. When the Firefly disappears from view with a satchel of important government documents in his possession, his sister Esme Falconer is suspected of beings in cahoots with him. Dashing aviator Devereaux Bayne believes in Esme's innocence and accordingly dons civilian garb and heads to Paris' Latin Quarter to get the low-down on the Firefly's whereabouts.
Fishermaid Marcia Manot finds an emerald which once belonged to a Norse queen and is cursed. Greedy American Silas Martin marries her, then sets her up for divorce. She kills him and weds his business manager Sterling, but a detective learns about Silas' death.
Henry de Spain is determined to find the man who murdered his father. He becomes sort of an outsider with Duke Morgan's gang, cattlemen, and outlaws. Nan, daughter of the head of the clan, secretly loves Henry and when he is wounded in a fight with the Morgan clan, she helps him escape. This angers her father and he declares that she shall marry her cousin. Nan dispatches a message to Henry for assistance and he brings her safely to his clan. Nan then learns that her father was the murder of Henry's father. She returns to her father to learn the truth and together they go to Henry and reveal the murder's name. After a thorough understanding and forgiving, Henry and Nan are married.
While visiting Alan, who works in Tokyo, she attends a festival with her Japanese maid while wearing a Japanese kimono. There she meets the wealthy Arai Takada, who is taken by the mysterious woman. Alan has dishonored and betrayed O'Mitsu, and her brother Arai plans a terrible revenge.
Sato (Sessue Hayakawa) faithfully works for importer James Thornton (James Neill). When the old man dies, he leaves his daughter Mildred (Vivian Martin) in Sato's care. Sato loves the girl, but as he is Japanese he cannot hope to ever marry her (at least not in the racially prejudiced era of the early 1900s). Besides, Mildred loves Harry Maxwell (Tom Forman), who was raised alongside her.
A WWI English officer is inspired the night before a dangerous mission by a vision of Joan of Arc, whose story he relives.
Maj. Ralph Seton is a British army officer stationed in Cawnpore, India, when the Sepoy Rebellion--a mutiny of Indian soldiers in the Brtitish army in India--breaks out in 1857. He receives the prestigious Victoria Cross--the highest decoration that can be awarded to a British soldier--for his actions in battle. However, after a night of drunken debauchery, he is stripped of the honor and disgraced in front of his love, Joan Strathallen, the daughter of his commanding officer. When Indian rebel leader Azimoolah instigates an uprising by the natives and has Joan kidnapped, Seton sets out to redeem his honor and save the woman he loves.
Despite her well-bred upbringing, Mary had disobeyed her family’s wishes and married Steve Denby, a petty thief whose penchant for booze has left them destitute. Mary answers an ad to be a society woman’s seamstress and is hired by Mrs. Hillary. Mr. Hillary is trying to close a deal with Roger Manning and entices him by inviting him, as a dinner guest, to meet the “prettiest girl in the world.” Upon learning that the “prettiest girl” is indisposed, Mrs. Hillary, realizing that Mary had good upbringing, enlists Mary as a substitute. Naturally Mary and Manning fall in love, and, since the deal still isn’t signed, the Hillary’s hire Mary’s services for the weekend.
Masha, a young Russian emigrant traveling to the U.S., is saved from an officer's advances by civil engineer David Harding. Upon landing in America, J. J. Walton, a self-made political boss and contractor, pursues Masha and hires her as his maid. She leaves after the first night, but becomes his mistress after Walton promises her an education and marriage. A lost film.
William C. DeMille adapted his screenplay for The Woman on the stage play by DeMille's father Henry and David Belasco. The story is set in Washington D.C., courtesy of the Lasky Studio's scenic department. Lois Meredith plays the title character, a woman of questionable morals currently involved with young politician James Neill. Political boss Theodore Roberts hopes to ruin Neill by making public the young man's romantic entanglements.
Russian brothers Count Boris and Alexis Rabourdin obtain a Japanese coastline defense map and plan to sell it to German agents in London. In America, Alexis schemes to marry wealthy Eve Bertram, who loves him. Boris, meanwhile, falls in love with Christine Lesley, Eve's neighbor whom Eve's brother Guy, an amateur inventor experimenting with explosives, also loves.
Two American grandfathers in France try to arrange marriages for their grandson and granddaughter by promising them money. The young ones refuse and run off to join a theatrical group where they fall in love and marry as their grandparents had intended.