Eric Fane (Richard Barthelmess) is a composer unwilling to compromise his dream for a steady job back home in the United States. After his studies in Italy, he moves to Paris, where he is forced to write popular songs for money when he stops receiving support from his father. He tires of selling out and, after an encounter with the mob, starts to travel. He begins a madcap journey from Paris to Port Said, Egypt, and to the South Seas, where he believes he has found love with Teita (Bessie Love).

When her husband Fred goes bankrupt, Lily Morton is forced to give up the trappings of wealth and move into a humble home while Fred attempts to fight his way back to prosperity. Resentful of her modest circumstances, Lily accepts her friend Marion Garland's offer to introduce her to Mrs. Farington, a woman who will pay handsomely for Lily's escort services. Lily goes to work for Mrs. Farington while her unsuspecting husband struggles to regain his former wealth. While managing an apartment house for one of his wealthy clients, Fred visits Mrs. Farington, a tenant, and, noticing a framed picture of Lily, asks to be introduced to the girl. Mrs. Farington arranges the rendezvous, and when Lily arrives, she is confronted by her enraged husband who chokes her to death. At this moment, Lily awakens from her nightmare, and chastened for her superficiality, begs Fred for forgiveness.

A group of seven people find themselves on a ship in the middle of an endless ocean, with no recollection of how they got there. (lost film)

Jacqueline Roland, the daughter of a backwoodsman, meets Henri Dubois during a visit to the city, but is unresponsive to his attentions. Henri later takes charge of the lumber camp where Jacqueline lives, and is closely followed by Li Chang, who is blackmailing him to keep secret a murder he committed years earlier. The new boss is determined to win Jacqueline for himself and convinces her lover, Raoul Radon, that she no longer cares for him. When Li Chang kidnaps Jacqueline, Henri comes to claim her and an oil lamp is upset during the ensuing struggle. As the fire spreads into the forest, Jacqueline escapes with Li Ching in pursuit. She and Raoul are reunited, while Henri perishes in the blaze.

Because he wants a promotion, Tom Blackford marries Alice Rand, the daughter of his boss, John Rand. Rand is aware of Blackford's motivations and he sends him to take over as superintendent of one of the company's mines in the hopes that he will fail.

Disgusted with his spendthrift son, Kirk Anthony's father has Kirk shanghaied and taken to Panama, where he attracts the attention of Mrs. Edith Cortlandt. He subsequently falls in love with Chiquita, the daughter of a Panamanian general, gets a railroad job through Stephen Cortlandt and decides to make something of himself when he meets Allen Allan, a black mercenary. Stephen Cortlandt's death is blamed on Kirk until Edith produces a suicide note. He succeeds in his railroad position and returns to the United States with Chiquita to ask his father's forgiveness. A lost film.

Although a feud between the Harlan and Boone families has been raging for years, Mollie Powell, the Harlan's stepdaughter, is secretly in love with Clay Boone. When a young member of the Boone clan is killed during one of the battles, Clay vows that he will never touch a gun again. Branded a coward by the other mountaineers, Clay keeps his oath until Buck Gomery, one of the moonshiners, attacks Julia Weston, the daughter of another moonshiner.

East Side gangster Buck Leslie attempts to stop a fight between chemist Gregory and a tough and is pursued by detective Phil Hoyt to a tenement roof where he takes refuge. On the roof he meets crippled Hilda Shea, who shelters him, and they eventually fall in love, the appeal of her innocence causing him to reform. Buck antagonizes the gang, however, and they try to frame him. Hoyt finds Buck on the roof, and during the ensuing fight the tenement catches on fire. Buck rescues Hilda, and she miraculously regains use of her limbs. The detective abandons his pursuit, leaving the lovers happy.

Stewart, an art student in the "bohemian" Greenwich Village in New York City, lives next door to his girlfriend Hedda, who wants to be a singer. One night while they are dining at their favorite cafe, a wealthy woman, Mrs. Trask, comes up to them with a proposition: she knows he is an artist and wants to go to Paris in order to study and develop his talent, and she will pay all his expenses to allow him to do that. He refuses because he doesn't want to leave Hedda, but she eventually persuades him to agree. It turns out that she as an ulterior motive for what she's doing--as does Mrs. Trask.