The head of the Kimberly household rules it with an iron fist. Unfortunately the head of the Kimberly household isn't Grant (J.H. Gilmore), the father and wealthy Wall Street magnate -- it's his spoiled, headstrong daughter Catherine (Virginia Pearson). She is so willful that she has earned the name "Impossible Catherine," and her whole focus in life is to prove women's superiority over the masculine gender.
Sheila Cardross Malcourt shares only a loveless marriage with Louis Malcourt, but is unwilling to divorce him even to marry the man she really loves, for fear of hurting her foster parents. Instead, she stifles her feelings for Garry Hamil and strives to maintain her marriage. But when tragedy ensues, she finds herself faced with a new dilemma.
During a party held in honor of his daughter Marion, Thomas Sterling announces that he will turn over his shipbuilding plant to the United States government for the duration of World War I. Sterling wants Marion to marry his partner, Hugo Smith, but she prefers Gordon Brett, who proposes to her after the party. Marion's father catches the two in an embrace and orders Gordon out of the house. Later that night, Sterling is found murdered. Gordon is the principal suspect, but Marion refuses to believe he is guilty and hides him in the house. Later she discovers Smith sending a message to the Germans on a wireless hidden in the attic.
Trying to win the Three C's railroad line for his home town of Topaz, Colorado, Nicholas "Nick" Tarvin journeys to India to secure the famed jewel known as the Naulahka, which he plans to present to Mrs. Mutrie, the railroad president's wife.
A young heiress of an American gun factory is threatened by a masked man after her father was murdered. This criminal might be a member of her family or a German agent, who wants to get information about the factory's products, perhaps his mystery has a combined solution - we will probably never know...
Convicted in a revolutionary conspiracy, a man rashly states that he wishes never again to hear the name of the United States of America. The judge grants him his wish, sentencing him to life aboard a ship always at sea, aboard with sailors under orders never to let him hear of his homeland in any way. The punishment nearly destroys him, while changing him thoroughly.
The lead Florence La Badie plays dual roles. Clever editing is used for the scene where her two characters meet. La Badie, however, does appear twice within a scene via superimposition, but that's in a flashback-within-a-mirror scene. There are a couple such scenes where La Badie's reflection in the mirror reflects her reflective melancholy mood.
A small town marshal’s secret past as an outlaw comes back to haunt him when an old associate shows up and threatens to expose his former dark deeds.