A handsome radio singer has it all--fame, money, adoring fans--but what no one knows is that his accompanist, a hunchbacked piano player, is actually the voice behind the arrogant, abusive "singer"'s fame. The two men fall for the same girl, and when the singer turns up dead, suspicion falls upon his assistant and the girl.
Tony, the son of Italian immigrants, works in a smoky steel mill in Gary, Indiana. He wins a company scholarship which will enable him to attend Yale college. Over the four years of his college career he learns about football, love, and class prejudice.
A woman goes to a sideshow fortune-teller to have her fortune told, and is astonished when the man looks into his crystal ball and goes into great detail about events in her past that few people ever knew about. Shaken, she leaves and later tells her girlfriend about the incident. The girlfriend insists that she invite the fortune-teller to a party they're having at her house. What the woman doesn't realize is that the "fortune-teller" is actually the ex-husband she abandoned years ago, when she took their daughter and ran off with her lover. When the "charlatan" is invited to the party, he sees an opportunity to take his revenge on his faithless ex-wife.
Two men in love with the same girl are trapped with her in a forest fire.
Susan Adams, who works as a pianist in a Broadway music store, has ambitions for a stage career. Arthur Bennett, famous theater producer and successful star-maker, calls her into his office to complain about her loud piano under him, and she haughty replies that if he gives her a chance on stage, she will do it.
Jim Warren, a crook, is married to Norma, but there was a flaw in their marriage papers and he must marry her again to protect their unborn child. He returns home and gives her some money but it has been stolen and she is sent to jail as an accomplice. To get her out, he is forced to marry another woman and Norma, thinking Jim has deserted her marries Phil Powers, and gives birth to Jim's daughter. Years later, Jim meets his daughter in the midst of a blackmail scheme against Norma over her earlier imprisonment. The daughter shoots the blackmailer, and Jim takes the blame.
In this silent melodrama Sir Melmoth Craven is running against John Orme for a seat in Parliament. Orme is an honest man, but Craven is on the shady side. For campaign money, he borrows money from an equally shady establishment called Gordon, Ltd. Orme's sweetheart, Margaret Garth, becomes infatuated with Craven, much to the dismay of her mother, Enid.
The last of the impetuous Varicks, Lady Helen Haden is married to Sir Bruce Haden, a brute who treats her shamefully. She falls in love with Ned Thayer, a young American, but refuses to divorce her husband because of the attendant scandal and disgrace. Sir Bruce gains possession of a love letter written to Ned by Lady Helen and divorces her. Ned goes to Africa, and Lady Helen comes to the United States, where she encounters Rudolph Solomon, an art collector who wants her to become his mistress. The noblewoman at first refuses, but when her money runs out, she agrees to the proposal and attends a party at his home. Ned, who has learned of the divorce, comes looking for Helen and meets her at Solomon's party. Lady Helen is so humiliated and ashamed that she rushes from the house and throws herself in front of an automobile.
After being educated in England, Daisy Forbes returns to China, the country of her birth, and discovers that her father has recently died and that she has become a social outcast, owing to the public revelation that the oriental nurse who raised her was actually her mother...
A pair of professional thieves discover that their accomplice, Mary Brennan, is a dead-ringer for wealthy heiress Margaret Waring. They wait until Margaret is absent from the house, then place Mary there to make their heist easier. Unfortunately, Margaret returns before they've finished the job and gets shot. When the police get there, both women claim to be Margaret Waring and accuse the other of being the thief--and they look so much alike that no one can tell the difference.
After Jim Barston is mysteriously killed in Australia, his wife, Helen, lays claim to the estate of Gerald Mortimer Barston in England, asserting that her husband was the missing son and heir. In reality, Jim was the cousin of the true heir, who is also named Jim Barston. Despite having no legal proof, Helen convinces the trustees to accept her claim and is installed as mistress of the manor. Jim Barston appears and proves his identity, although Helen initially believes him to be an impostor.
When his wife Grace inherits her father's stock, John Miller, the president of the Western Power and Development Company, becomes a millionaire and moves to New York with his family. Beset by business problems, Miller pays little attention to his wife, and Grace, feeling neglected, takes up with a bohemian set. Among her new acquaintances she meets Stuart Mordant, the attorney for Thomas Hurd, a business rival of Miller's. Grace seeks refuge from loneliness in Mordant, who makes a bargain with Hurd to gain control of her husband's company for half a million dollars.
At 10 years old, Owen becomes a ragged orphan when his mother dies. Abusive next-door neighbors the Conways take him in, and by 17, Owen has learned that might is right. At 25, he's a career gangster: loitering, gambling and drinking in dens of iniquity. Marie Deering arrives in Owen's area, eager to empower the impoverished, gang-affiliated youth through education. Owen slowly but surely leaves his old life behind, choosing the narrow path- all the while falling in love with Marie. Skinny, who's taken over Owen's role in the gang, reappears to him, spelling trouble.