Brandon, a surveyor, dreams of building a railway to the west. He sets off with his son, Davy, to survey a route. They discover a new pass which will shave 200 miles off the expected distance, but they are set upon by a party of Cheyenne. One of them, a white renegade with only two fingers on his right hand, kills Brandon and scalps him. Davy is all alone now.

A venal, spoiled stockbroker's wife impulsively embezzles $10,000 from the charity she chairs and desperately turns to a Burmese ivory trader to replace the stolen money.

Esra Kincaid takes land by force and, having taken the Espinoza land, his sights are set on the Castro rancho. Government agent Kearney holds him off till the cavalry shows up and he can declare his love for Juanita, called “the Rose of the Rancho.”

Tony comes to America virtually the slave of his padrone, who holds him in debt for his passage money. But Rosa Picciano marries him to escape parental discipline and Tony hopes for freedom at last, but Rosa makes it plain that she does not love him.

Matchin' Jim comes to the "Flying A" ranch and is employed as one of its cowboys. His name is well justified, as he has a mania for matching coins. Not far from the ranch lives Ellings, an old placer miner. He has a daughter, Phyllis, whose sole delight in life seems to be in caring for a puny rose bush that she has planted at the side of her father's cabin. By diligent nursing she has managed to bring it to such a stage that it produces a single blossom. As Matchin' Jim is wandering near the cabin one day, hunting, a wild shot from his gun narrowly misses Phyllis and cuts from the rose bush its one lone flower. She calls to Jim, and when he comes to her she points out the damage that he has done. But Jim only grins and tells her that he'll match her to see whether she is going to be mad at him or not.

Hector MacKnight, known to the townspeople as "Goofy" and an irritatingly terrible fiddler, is innocently drawn into a rigged poker game. A general fight brings the sheriff, and a chase ensues. Before the confusion is ended and Hector cleared, he meets Ruth Randolph and becomes involved in a circus while trying to recover the other half of her treasure map.

Jack is just a cowboy on the Gilman cattle ranch. Born and bred of the west, he is broad-mined and easy going. In direct contrast to him is Frances, a girl of the east, who comes to the west with Gilman's daughter. Frances has been born and brought up in wealth and culture and does not understand the cowboy who refuses to cater to her whim but who tries to dominate her. Later, when he proposes to her, she accepts him. She leaves for the east, promising to marry him when her course at school is finished. Jack sets about to build a cabin for their home. While at her home in the east, Frances is constantly being urged by Raymond Welton, a club man, to forget the rough cowboy, and to marry him.

Young lawyer Richard Potter and Irene Roberts are secretly engaged but Irene’s social climbing mother wants her to marry a wealthy man. To that end she schemes with banker David Winters to break up Richard and Irene and pair her with Winters profligate son Gerald Winters. They succeed temporarily but Gerald is a violent drunk who runs with a fast crowd and eventually ends up charged with murder. Though innocent Gerald has been well framed and faces the gallows until Irene appeals to Richard, now the District Attorney, for aid. At the eleventh hour a confession saves Richard, allowing Richard and Irene to reunite.

When Mrs. Harrison arrives in Harborsport for her vacation, she announces her plan to marry Gladsome, her daughter, to Vincent Bradshaw, the son of her financial advisor James Bradshaw. To keep Gladsome from socializing with the local fishermen, James drives them from his property, but they organize under her and force their way back. Arrested for rabble-rousing, Gladsome is bailed out of jail by James and later meets "Alphabet" Carter, a vacationing financial wizard, for whom she has an immediate attraction.

A drifter enters town to establish himself. Working as a cowhand, he meets the boss's daughter, who's eager to absorb some local color.

Helen Salvia sets sail with her 4-year-old daughter for Panda, an isolated East African port, where she expects to join her Italian husband, Lorenzo, who deserted her a year after their marriage. Cochran, the burly first mate, and Harvey, the youthful third officer, openly vie for her favor, while Captain Glanville remains aloof. In Panda, Helen discovers that her husband has become a drunken derelict and returns to the ship, but Glanville is forced to buy her release from Salvia. Fearful of the implication, Helen returns ashore with her daughter, flees from Lorenzo's attempts to attack her, and is found by Glanville just as a typhoon breaks in all its fury. In regaining possession of the child from Lorenzo, the captain is wounded; and Cochran, covering their retreat, kills Lorenzo. Cochran pays for his daring with his life, and Helen is free to return to England with Glanville. It is considered a lost film.

The Gray Ghost is a 1917 American crime-drama film serial directed by Stuart Paton. Chapters: 1. The Bank Mystery; 2. The Mysterious Message; 3. The Warning; 4. The Fight; 5. Plunder; 6. The House of Mystery; 7. Caught in the Web; 8. The Double Floor; 9. The Pearl Necklace; 10. Shadows; 11. The Flaming Meteor; 12. The Poisoned Ring; 13. The Tightening Snare; 14. At Bay; 15. The Duel; 16. From Out of the Past.

Returning from service in the A. E. F., Dale Garland is given a rousing reception by his townsmen. County political boss Nebo Slayter persuades the community to nominate Dale for sheriff--thinking he can be easily manipulated--against John Millard, the incumbent, who refuses political compromises. Dale easily wins and pledges to give the citizens an honest deal. Millard's daughter, Alice, who is Dale's childhood sweetheart, learns of Slayter's dishonest schemes and sees his men murder a moonshiner for whom they had been furnishing protection.

Frivolous young Marie de Severac is frightened into following a more virtuous path, when her father relates a story in which an equally frivolous woman is entombed alive. The movie was Rex Ingram’s directorial debut, and he later remade the film as Trifling Women in 1922. Black Orchids is considered to be a lost film.

Some valuable pearls are stolen in China and transported to San Francisco. Jane Hampton learns that her father is the smuggler, and that police are on his trail. Under pressure, she takes the pearls to a Chinese man named Woo Fong.

A diamond is stolen at a houseboat party given by the district attorney. He gives the thief a chance to return it by putting an empty box on a table and turning out the lights. When the lights are turned back on the box is gone, and the district attorney has a knife in his back and is quite dead. The police and the coroner arrive. There are several attempts made on the life of the coroner. Ruth Whitman is found hiding in a grandfather-clock, holding the gem box. She claims the box was pushed into her hands and she was pushed into the clock. The district attorney's butler/valet tells the coroner he saw who killed his employer and a few minutes later he is also murdered. The mystery deepens.

Tommie Burke is a tomboy, and she can braid a hackamore, rope a steer, ride a broncho, or do any of the things cowboys usually accomplish. Arnold Blake, son of the wealthiest cattleman, is her companion on many wild rides and innocent escapades. Away back in the back bay district of Boston, Charles Percival is starting for the west, with out the farewells of an uncle and two stern maiden aunts, who feel that he has disgraced them forever by his reckless habits. About the time he arrives at the Burke ranch, the latter receives his New York sister and her daughter Mabel.

Jim Blaine and his daughter Elsie meet Bill Carson , while en route to Weepah in search of gold. Elsie, who is much admired by Bill, plays the violin in the dance-hall managed by Steve Morton, who controls a gang of claim jumpers. Elsie's father is robbed of gold dust by one of Morton's men, Bill recovers it and indicates he knows the culprit.

Jim Stanley becomes an ally to Mona and Phil in their dispute with the stepfather. Phil is wrongly accused of murder and Jim assists him in proving his innocence. Ultimately, the stepfather is arrested for the murder of Phil and Mona's father, bringing him to justice resolving the central conflict.

A good-natured but chivalrous cowboy romances the local schoolmarm and leads the posse that brings a gang of rustlers, which includes his best friend, to justice.