A man recognizes the thief who had previously robbed him as one of the men involved in an unrelated mob shootout.

An elderly business tycoon, believed to be dying, decides to give a million dollars each to eight strangers chosen at random from the phone directory.

A story of duplicity, ambition and misunderstandings when four peoples lives become intertwined in a quest for a political appointment.

Two sisters, Nellie and Florence, support themselves and their mother by sewing. A man accompanying a wealthy client tempts first Nellie and then Florence to leave with him. Nellie rejects him, but Florence goes to his decadent apartment and becomes his mistress. Nellie marries a diligent carpenter and raises a growing family. Eventually the Tempter tosses Florence out, and she dies alone and impoverished.

To fulfill a dying mother's bequest for her daughter, the town pastor purchases the daughter a stylish hat, and gossip spreads through the town.

In the apartment hotel lived the aspiring maid, whose solicitude maintained order in the bachelor's apartment. He was her ideal, and the all-adoring bell-boy was firmly but gently given to understand that maids who read "Heliotrope Glendening's Advice to Young Ladies" look higher than ice-water toters. A compromising complication, however, with an unexpected visit from a beautiful lady, quite convinces the aspiring one that wealthy young bachelors may be the grandest men ever, but their aspirations, when it comes to the crucial test, are not for chambermaids. Science influences his actions so much that he gets into trouble with the police.

Sisters guarding their house from a burglar set upon stealing their daddy's money.

A gang of thieves lure a man out of his home so that they can rob it and threaten his wife and children. The family barricade themselves in an interior room, but the criminals are well-equipped for breaking in. When the father finds out what is happening, he must race against time to get back home.

A wealthy, callous moneylender finds a terrifying way to learn about money's limitations.

As Poe's lover is slowly dying, he struggles to make money to care for her.

When the double wedding takes two daughters away from the old man at once, the youngest, now the only one left, in outraged spirit promises never to leave her father, but soon she too is departing for a new home. Then comes a cold hard fact of life. The son-in-law claims his right to make a home alone for his wife. In his bitterness and anger, the father denies them both the house. Several years later the lonely old man meets at the gate a babe in arms. When he learns whose baby it is, heart hunger craves another sight, and sought, brings with it the only natural result.

An upper class drawing room. A gentleman breaks the curtain pole and goes in search of a replacement, but he stops into a pub first. He buys a very long pole, and causes havoc everywhere he passes, accumulating an ever-growing entourage chasing him, until he escapes them through a bit of movie magic, only to discover that the pole has already been replaced.

After her mother's death, Ruth struggles to support herself as a seamstress. While Ruth delivers shirts to the factory owner, the owner's son steals some money and Ruth is accused of the crime. She flees the ghetto of New York's Lower East Side and hides in the country where she meets a young farmer.

Nekhludoff, a Russian nobleman serving on a jury, discovers that the young girl on trial, Katusha, is someone he once seduced and abandoned and that he himself bears responsibility for reducing her to crime. He sets out to redeem her and himself in the process.

Steve Monteith and Ezra Mason, upper class men, and Bill Bronson, a plebe, are chums and roommates at West Point before the Civil War. Steve prepares to leave for his home in Virginia, and Mason and he exchange photographs before parting. General Abner Montieth, Steve's father, and his sister Clairette are overjoyed and surprised when Steve arrives. Aunt Margie and her adopted daughter, Joan Fitzhugh, who is very fond of Steve, join the family and give Steve a warm welcome. One year later the rumble of war is heard. Steve, now a major, and his father, General, leave at the head of separate companies with the Confederate troops.

Kenneth Marsden, a young artist in failing health is advised to go south to New Orleans, where he expects to find accommodation with an old-time friend of his mother. The old lady receives the son of her dear friend with open arms, but her two convent-bred nieces, Mary and Edith, are horrified at the thought of a man in the house. However, it isn't long after his arrival that he has made a decided impression upon the young ladies.

Miner Kate Nelson strikes gold but is quickly robbed at a frontier hotel by a desperate Mexican woman, who shoots a hotel clerk during her escape. The thief hides with an Indian girl and her half-breed husband. She seduces the husband into helping her torture and hang his Indian wife over a river. After bravely escaping her bonds, the Red Girl guides Kate and a posse in a thrilling canoe chase. Following a dramatic underwater battle, the culprits are captured. The husband tries to reconcile with his wife, but she rejects him, finding solace and friendship in Kate's embrace.

A music teacher is in love with Helen, one of his students, but she rejects him. In his hurt he joins an anarchist group who plan to blow up a rich capitalist's house. When he realizes it's Helen's house, he tries to stop the plan.

Pippa awakes and faces the world outside with a song. Unbeknown to her, the music has a healing effect on all who hear her as she passes by.

Mrs. Jones leaves her baby with the maid and goes shopping for a new hat. Meanwhile, the maid invites a band of gypsies into the house for a palm reading. After the gypsies leave, no one can find the baby, and everyone assumes it's been kidnapped-- until the baby is found under a hatbox.