A Pathe serial in ten chapters of two-reels each: Dan Winterslip, a wealthy man in Honolulu, has not spoken to his brother, who owns a hotel next to Winterslip's estate, in over twenty years. Minerva, sister to the estranged brothers, comes from Boston to try to reconcile the two men. John Quincy Winterslip, Dan's nephew, receives a letter instructing him to retrieve a box from an attic in San Francisco and dump the contents into the ocean. He is on board a ship bound for Hawaii in which other passengers are also after the box. Dan Winterslip is murdered. Charlie Chan, a Chinese detective, offers to help solve the killing and the mysteries surround the box. Chan is looking for the person whose wristwatch is missing the number 'three.'
Barry Weston is raised by his widowed mother and is, at best, a "mama's boy," and, at worst, a bit of a coward. He is drafted into the A.E.F. when World War I breaks out, and accidentally captures a nest of German snipers, and is decorated for bravery. He returns home as a hero but Vance, the town bully, challenges him to a fight but Barry refuses and the townsmen mock him and consider him a coward. His girlfriend Janet is none too impressed, either. He heads for the tall timber with suicide as his intent.
Aspiring author Prudence "Prue" Severn leaves her staid home for the wild life in New York's artistic Greenwich Village community. Her concerned family hires two thrill-seeking ex-doughboys, bow-tied Bartley "Bart" Greer and his trigger-happy buddy Lee, to look after her and, hopefully, persuade her to come home. They move into Prue's apartment building, where she lives with a sculptress pal. Although interested in Bart, Prue senses he is being paid to watch over her-- so she decides to elope with the handsome Rolf.
In 15th century France, a gypsy girl is framed for murder by the infatuated Chief Justice, and only the deformed bellringer of Notre Dame Cathedral can save her.
Elmer Slocum has just served a jail sentence for speeding. On his first day of liberty he encounters a physician whose car has broken down and offers to take him to his patient; he is pursued by motorcops for speeding, wrecks his car in a closed street, and knocks down and believes he has killed a policeman. Elmer boards a freight train and makes his way to a small town in Iowa, where he meets Margaret Andrews.....
John and Katherine Colby decide to put off parenthood until he has become wealthy. Their friends, Tom and Grace Donaldson, decide to start a family right away. While John works his way up to a position of power at a steel firm, Katherine begins to question the wisdom of their decision.
Edgar is about to lose the lady of his heart because the Bates boys have been given a complete camping outfit for their back yard: tent, stove, and everything. However, Edgar soon rallies and organizes a side show, displaying the greatest freaks on earth. This soon draws attention from the Bates boys, and Edgar is himself again, until that night when he camps out in the sideshow tent. Then the spooks hover about and Edgar is carried shrieking into the house by his father. This film is presumably lost.
The story of Edgar Pomeroy, the first in a series, in which the boy Edgar imagines himself the triumphant master of his fate, revenging himself on a scornful young female classmate. But then the real events are seen in contrast with the ones Edgar has created in his mind.
After a young inventor discovers a powerful new explosive, agents from a German chemical firm induce him to study at a German university. While there, he is repelled by certain aspects of the people, and he leaves for Belgium. When the war begins, the inventor saves a Belgian burgomaster's daughter from Prussian invaders. The inventor and the girl endure horrible suffering because of the war, but they find happiness at its end, while the formerly fighting nations direct their effort towards world peace at the Paris conferences. The assassination of Kurt Eisner of Bavaria occurs at the end.
Brewster, the bean king, has an option of renewal on a certain bean canning plant owned by Ellis. Ellis does not want to renew so hires shyster lawyer Wingate to help him. Brewster sends Betty to renew the contract but Ellis declines. Later Brewster sends his lawyer along with Ellis' man to persuades her that he isn't crooked. There follows plot and counter-plot, but innocent Betty carries the day.
Little Betty has a luxurious home, an army of servants and the costliest of toys. But she hasn't what a child wants most of all, other children to play with. The result is that she runs away and joins a group of children from the ghetto district on the beach. In play she exchanges clothing with a little boy. That evening Betty doesn't return home. Her maiden aunt, an over-zealous guardian, is frantic. She notifies the police. The same evening the father of the boy, who has lost his position and is facing starvation, decides to turn burglar. He steals into the home of Betty's father. The household is awakened and the intruder captured.
Jim Ogden, secretly engaged to Madge Hemmingway, wealthy heiress, becomes sensitive over his lack of money and breaks the engagement. In a moment of pique she marries Count Van Tuyle. After six months she returns from Europe, minus her husband. Trying to forget her error, she goes to the country.
The hero is a young soldier who is in love with two girls simultaneously. While on the battlefield, the soldier learns that one of his sweethearts has committed suicide. Only temporarily taken aback, he begins to dream of the blissful domesticity which he will enjoy with the other girl upon his return.
Captain Fane, an English army officer stationed at Cairo, is in love with Lady Fiennis, who is treated most cruelly by her husband. Fane returns to England when he finds that she refuses to leave him. Five years later Fane's sister summons him to tell him that her son Frankie, who is only twenty-two years old, has decided to marry a widow many years his senior.