A kindly but desperate Alsatian innkeeper named Mathias murders and robs a rich Jewish merchant staying at his inn, but the ghost of his victim will not let him rest. Meanwhile, a mysterious Mesmerist has come to town, claiming he has made many criminals confess their crimes...
When she goes to tell her husband Hubert that she is expecting a child, Caroline Knollys finds him in the arms of another woman. Caroline leaves him and, not telling him of her pregnancy, runs off to Europe where she has her child and becomes the toast of European society. Then she returns to settle with her husband once and for all.
The daughter of straitlaced parents, Bessie Bowden is attracted to the social life of the fast set and finds Austin Trull, lounge lizard and sometime artist, more interesting than hard-working John Hargraves. Mr. Bowden and John try to compete with Bessie's new friends and spend all the family savings on making the Bowden home appear wealthy and a part of the social whirl. Bessie and Geraldine Horton finally catch Trull at his double-dealing, and Bessie wisely returns to home and Hargraves.
About Omar Khayyam of Persia, the poet and mathematician, who wrote the Iranian first solar calendar circa A.D. 1073. His fiancé was forced to marry the shah, but she eventually escaped and, with help of grand Vazir, joined Omar Khayyam. Hollywood made a film based on the same story with Connell Wilde, the life and adventures of Omar Khayyam.
John Loder looks exactly like his cousin, John Chilcote, who is a member of Parliament. Because of his dissolute ways, Chilcote collapses, and Loder is called in to take his place so that the family honor can remain unsullied. Loder's masquerade is so successful that no one suspects him of being an impostor, not even Chilcote's estranged wife, Eve. Loder distinguishes himself with his actions, both in public and private, while the real Chilcote sinks further into the gutter until he finally dies. Loder decides to remain as John Chilcote, and marries Eve, who, up until Loder reveals his true identity, has believed she was falling in love with her husband all over again.
Nancy Bradshaw (Katherine MacDonald) is a popular stage star who quits her career to marry millionaire clubman Dick Cunningham (Charles Richman). But after a few years of marriage, he starts seeing other women. Figuring that her public was more faithful to her than her husband, Nancy returns to the stage.
A welcome guest of the French aristocracy, Monsieur Picard having been awarded the Croix De Guerre, is also a master thief who baffles the Parisian police. One night, while Picard watches an Apache dance, he learns that one of his three adopted children is seriously ill. When his car breaks down, Picard politely forces Helen Deprenay to loan him her auto, and leaves his cross as security. The next day, the police pursue Picard to the Deprenay home where the prefect warns Helen about Picard. Helen writes to the entreating Picard, and refuses to see him until he proves himself of worth to society. Disguised as Scotland Yard agent Armand DuBois, Picard is present at the Deprenay home when a necklace is stolen. After Helen covers for him, Picard catches the thief in an attempt to swindle the entire community in a stock market scheme. He informs the police that Picard no longer exists, and escapes with Helen to a new life.
Thomas Singleton broke down when his wife died giving birth to their daughter. He eventually recovered, but his half-brother Morse kept him locked up at the asylum. After seventeen years, Singleton escapes and tracks down his daughter, Virginia, who is due to inherit a fortune on her eighteenth birthday. Convinced that his half-brother will try to trick Virginia out of her inheritance, Singleton sends her to live with his former gardener......
In Czarist Russia, attractive Anna Ivanovna has consecrated her life to work among Russia's persecuted poor. She dispenses food, medicine, and funds to the needy, from a busy charity headquarters. Two men, separate in station, are in love with Ivanovna: Poor doctor Paul helps as much as he can, and wealthy merchant Serge donates money. The relentless and lascivious Chief of Police, also attracted by Ivanova's beauty and virtue, determines to possess her, and sentences all three to fifteen years in Siberia and East Russia on false charges.
It is sometimes decidedly difficult to get a little privacy on shipboard. Several times Jack Hardy almost reaches the proposal point with Marion Van Sickles, but each time the fates are against him. Marion and her mother are on their way home from a vacation in Europe and board the boat at Liverpool at the same time as Jack, who is very much struck by Marion's appearance. After a little flirtation on the boat, he believes that his feelings are returned and is about to propose. Just then mama comes along with Count Brainlesse, whom she wishes to marry Marion. The proposal is postponed. Again and again Jack tries to come to the point, being constantly interrupted by someone, either the count or mama, or the grouchy owner of the deck chair he has taken. First the grouch, then mama, and then the count, get sea-sick and at last Jack has Marion alone. Alas, the time has not yet come.
In the early part of the Nineteenth Century, Beau Brummell was the most talked-of person in all the world, the extreme of fashion, the personification of elegance and the most pretentious individual imaginable.
To start a little in advance of our story, Lord Rintoul, of the English nobility, finds a little Gypsy girl three years old, who had been deserted by her parents. Fifteen years later, Gavin Dishart, the Little Minister, receives an appointment, his first, at Thrums, Scotland. This was made possible through the self-sacrifices of his widowed mother, to educate him for the ministry. The community of Thrums is made up of weavers, who work hard, have little and accomplish much. They are ultra-religious and look upon their pastor with such reverence that he is a little lower than the angels. While naturally intelligent, they are grounded in dogma and intolerance. Just after the Little Minister takes charge of the "Auld Licht Kirk" and the Manse, the weavers resent a reduction, by the manufacturers, in their pay and a strike is declared.