In early 19th century England, ambitious and ruthless orphan Rebecca Sharp advances from the position of governess to the heights of British society.

A woman is betrayed by her cruel husband, who uses their child to further torment her.

After five years of repressed protest, Norma, wife of Dr. Hugh Ellis, a moderately successful physician, suddenly voices denunciation regarding the average position of the American wife in the average American home today wherein she is compelled to be entirely answerable to her husband in expenditures for household and petty needs.

A Southern teen at a ritzy boarding school gets into mischief while acting the sophisticated grownup to impress a suave gentleman and match wits with a pair of jewel thieves.

Lionel and Daniel Houston both love a Southern beauty named Virginia, and when she finally chooses Daniel, Lionel angrily moves North and turns his full attention to the acquisition of wealth. Virginia dies in childbirth, leaving Daniel to rear little Virginia alone. A rich aunt promises to leave Daniel a fortune provided he resume contact with his brother, whereupon Virginia, determined to effect a reconciliation between the two men, answers Lionel's ad for a cook and settles into his luxurious estate. There Virginia meets and falls in love with Lionel's adopted son Perry Arnold, but faces stiff competition in Rose Mason, in reality a crook who hopes to obtain Lionel's secret stock market papers. In the end, Virginia not only unmasks Rose's plot and wins Perry, but reunites her long-estranged father and uncle.

Heroine Laura suffers spectacularly as her romance with her soldier sweetheart is destroyed by malicious gossip.

A group of student archaeologists venture into the Florida Everglades to look for fossils, but come across an area cursed by a Native American witch doctor.

Helena Richie leaves her drunken husband, who had killed their child, and goes to Old Chester in Pennsylvania with her friend Lloyd Pryor. Helena adopts a homeless boy, David, who had been a ward of the town's minister, Dr. Lavendar. Helena's true husband dies, but Lloyd Pryor, now tired of Helena, refuses to marry her. Helena confesses to the minister about her actual relationship with Pryor, and Dr. Lavendar forces her to give up her son. Helena agrees, certain that she is an unfit mother. Helena pleads her case and fights for her maternal rights.

An adventurous young girl in Florida gets herself lost in the Everglades and finds terror and excitement, as well as the rivalry of two men in love with her.

When Mary O'Brien falls in love with Ernest Randall, the younger son of an English baronet, she gives herself completely to him and becomes pregnant. Her father (Robert Broderick), an Irish gentleman, finds this out and demands that she marry Randall.

Edwin Rowley is a talented but uncommercial playwright. Stephen Hunt is a successful theatrical manager. Rowley finishes a brilliant play and sends it to Hunt for production. Recognizing it as a masterpiece, Hunt puts his own name on the play and produces it, achieving fame as a playwright. Upon discovery of the theft the shock is too much for Rowley’s wife, who dies. Rowley, devastated, loses his sanity and disappears. Hunt decides to adopt Rowley's orphaned son and raises him as his own. Years later, Rowley, wandering aimlessly, sees a poster advertising his play with his own name on it. This sight brings him back to his senses. Rowley and Hunt are reconciled, and Rowley finally receives public recognition and enjoys his success as the true author of the play.

A bride who discovers during her wedding ceremony that her husband-to-be has fathered a child out of wedlock with another woman.

Rip Van Winkle, a lazy American man, wanders off one day with his dog Wolf into the Kaatskill mountains where he runs into an odd group of men drinking and playing bowls. He drinks some of their mysterious brew and passes out. When he wakes up under a tree he is astonished to find that 20 years have passed and things are a lot different. This is a charming story about how America changed due to the cival war, only in a different and more subtle way than ever told before.