Judge Robert Appleton (Winter Hall) has led an exemplary life. His four children, however, fell short once they grew up and had to fend for themselves. When Appleton dies, his widow (Lydia Knott) explains that his last request was that each child spend one hour of contemplation with his body. The first is the youngest daughter, Daisy (Rosemary Theby), an artist of note who was betrayed and left with a son to raise out of wedlock. Next is Luke (Milton Sills), a wild young man who ran away at 19, and even though he is now married and a father, he still can't quite settle down. The eldest son, Bob (Wilfred Lucas), is next -- he wed a wealthy woman, but the marriage has no love.

Jim Young of Youngstown, Pennsylvania, reads of the German war atrocities and decides to enlist in the British army, thus becoming a forerunner of the American forces that are subsequently to leave for the battlefields of Europe. He begins active training at a camp outside London. While enjoying a few hours of leave, he meets Susie Broadplains , a young woman from Australia. She is flattered by his attentions and their friendship soon blossoms into love. However German plotters plan to destroy an arsenal at night and Sir Roger is inveigled into driving an automobile along a London road with its lights turned skyward to guide the Zeppelins. Jim, wounded and home on furlough, detects Sir Roger on the lonely road, follows and traps him in his cottage. Sir Roger turns his pistol on himself rather than be taken alive. Susie finds the "great love" in service for the cause of democracy and her country, with a greater love in sight.

Wealthy Elias Graves builds his home on the top of a hill, where a group of squatters have taken up residence at the bottom. Many of the men in the squatters' village have their eyes on young Tess, and one of them, Ben Letts, frames Tess's father for murder. While maintaining her father's innocence, Tess must keep her love for Graves' son a secret, while caring for Elias' daughter's illegitamate child.

Henry Baird, a young newspaperman with a second-hand car but little money, decides to raffle off the car at a county picnic, so that he can take out his sweetheart, Mabel Darrow, the daughter of a wealthy businessman. However, as soon as Henry gets the money, his tailor demands that he pay off his debt. Also, youngsters set the car on fire before he can give to the winner, Joseph Plant, whose wife Evelyn was formerly Henry's sweetheart.

A former Yale student returns to the land where his Spanish forefathers once reigned supreme and lives in the Mexican hills, occasionally riding into border towns, where he takes the law into his own hands and protects the weak from crooked elements. Known as Quemado, he prevents the marriage of a girl to a notorious desperado and meets Joanna Thatcher, an eastern girl to whom he makes the promise that she will someday come to love him. Joan becomes engaged to Gretorix, unwilling to admit to herself that she has become infatuated with the daring horseman. On Joan's wedding day, Quemado kidnaps her, forces her to admit that she loves him, and arranges to be wed by a parson on horseback as they ride furiously into the hills to avoid the pursuit of the angry Gretorix.

Jim Kyneton, once a member of an outlaw gang, joins the Texas Rangers and is forced to track down his former friends and his half brother Nick, who have been robbing a gold mine.

Danny, a ragamuffin orphan, is adopted by a brutal plumber and his frail wife. His fear of hunger, resulting from his foster father's indifference, at one point leads him to substitute for the plumber in repairing a leak, but he causes a flood. Later, Danny is instrumental in saving a policeman's life and in sending the plumber to jail. He finds new happiness with his foster mother on her parents' farm.

Sandy McNeil adopts strictly unconventional jazz ethics and against the wishes of her parents runs with a fast young set. An auto breakdown after a party places her in a compromising situation, and she grudgingly marries a wealthy suitor of her father's choice. When her husband's cruelty results in the death of her child, she leaves him and meets Ramon, an architect with whom she becomes infatuated. The return of his former mistress causes her to seek refuge with her cousin Judith, where she falls in love with Douglas, Judith's sweetheart. As Sandy refuses to return to Ramon, he shoots her and then kills himself. Douglas, taking the blame for her sake, is tried for murder, but Sandy rises from her sickbed and confesses in court; she succumbs after restoring Judith to Douglas.

Alain de Montcalm, son of a French trading post owner, pursues the villainous Caesar Le Noir across the icy northern wilderness. Le Noir kills Alain's father while abducting Alain’s sister, forcing Alain to track him to a deserted fort, leading to a tragic showdown.

Rachael (Bessie Barriscale) marries Clarence Breckenridge (Hershel Mayall) a widower much older than herself. Although she tries to be a good wife, he ignores her for the bottle. In addition, his daughter, Billy (Ella Hall), who is not much younger than Rachael, is spoiled. When Rachael meets the family doctor, Warren Gregory (Herbert Heyes), they fall in love.

Tex Benton (cowboy star Tom Mix) wants to marry Janet McWhorter (Kathleen O'Connor), but her father (Charles K. French) will give his blessings only if Tex works on his sheep ranch. Tex, a cattleman through and through, refuses and gets his aggressions out by stirring things up at the local saloon.

Actress Marie Lamont (Phoebe Hunt) has been living well due to a string of lovers and has kept her daughter, Dorothy (Gloria Hope) sequestered in a convent far, far away from her fast lifestyle. But when Dorothy leaves the convent to come live with her mother, Marie decides to reform. She gives up her fancy apartment and her latest lover, Harvey Martin (Jack Holt), to concentrate on her daughter and her career, in that order. But Martin has fallen for Dorothy, and Dorothy cares for him too, even though she is already promised to a young artist, Geoffrey Hutchins (John Harron).

Jack Pickford got his own production company when his sister Mary signed a huge contract with First National, and this was its first product. the story takes place in the Blue Ridge mountains, where the Appersons and the Yartons have an ongoing feud.

The owner of a gambling hall is entrusted with the care of a pretty young girl. He falls in love with her, but he must decide whether to let her go to his best friend, with whom he believes her to be in love, or to try to win her for himself.

Augustus Billings has a domineering mother-in-law, and to get away from both her and his wife, he takes a trip, claiming that he is going off to check on Mexican oil investments. But he's really going on a cruise with Mrs. Dathis, who has purchased his yacht. To throw everyone off track, he uses the name Mr. Johnson. When he decides to repeat the trip, however, all hell breaks loose -- the jealous Mr. Dathis is out to get his hands on this Johnson character, while a real Mr. Johnson shows up in Mexico, and Mrs. Billings shows up with her mother, and the confusion continues from there.

A terrible toothache causes Jack Robin to stop his automobile in front of the home of Dorothy Mason. Noticing a flat tire, Jack attaches his automatic pump and forgets about it as he listens enthralled to Dorothy's singing. When the sound of the burst tire brings Dorothy running out, Jack feigns injury so he can be nursed by her. After he leaves the house, and Dorothy's father discovers some important invention plans missing, Harlan Graves, Dorothy's suitor, suggests that Jack stole them. Jack, suspecting Graves, breaks into Graves' home to clear himself and meets a real burglar, "Spider" Kelly, who adopts Jack as his guide. They blow up a safe at a house party where Jack suspects the plans to be hidden. The papers are found, Graves is arrested and Spider, disappointed that Jack made such a mess in blowing the safe, goes off, leaving Dorothy and Jack happily alone.

Having followed the road of romance through many countries, Lord Quex finally falls in love with Muriel Eden. After resisting Lord Quex because of his reputation, Muriel finally capitulates to his charms and agrees to marry him. In her heart, however, Muriel still treasures an affection for Caption Bastling, a fortune hunting womanizer, and when Muriel is told of Lord Quex's continuing contact with the Duchess of Dowager, a situation brought about through the scheming of the Duchess, Muriel turns to Bastling and agrees to meet him at her friend Sophie Fullgarney's manicurist shop.

Tex Benton, riding across the country, sees a turtle, catches a jack rabbit and tests out the old fable of the tortoise and the hare; when the rabbit wins, Tex vows to model his behavior on that style. In a border town, he rescues an Indian, "Bat," and the two become friends. In Wolfville, Tex enters a rodeo. Meanwhile, a stalled Eastern train carries Alice Marcum, the girl Tex decides he wants. Tex competes with an Easterner for the girl's attentions, but Tex, the "hare," loses to the Eastern tenderfoot, the "tortoise." Tex then concludes that he is not the marrying kind.

A wealthy old man is murdered after deciding to write his nephew out of his will. Fearing that he will be accused of the murder his nephew takes flight but, with the help of a young woman whose life he saves, he has to try and track down the real murderer.

Although he loves his childhood playmate Marcelle Riley, Luke Halliday, whose father made his fortune as an Arizona miner, becomes engaged to Eleanor Steele, a New York high society girl. When Scar Norton arrives from Arizona and reveals that Luke's mother was Indian, Luke is so traumatized that he breaks off their engagement and ventures west to live among his mother's people.