BY DAY a beautiful wife-accepting a husband's humble love, his humble home, his humble pleasures. BY NIGHT a glittering butterfly yearning for the wine of life and tossing all to the winds when the glamour of romance calls.

To avoid marrying the elderly suitor her aunt has chosen for her, young socialite Ivis Van Astor decides to hire Horatio Worthington to pose as her husband. She hopes that as a "married woman" she will pique the romantic interest of Norman Kent, who perceives her as a sweet young thing. Ivis and her hired husband go to Newport, where she begins to flirt with Norman, who discovers her ruse and decides to teach her a lesson. He stages a duel over Ivis with Horatio and pretends to die. Once Ivis is properly chagrined, Norman "recovers," Ivis' aunt falls in love with Horatio, and all ends happily.

A farce in which the German Kaiser and the Crown Prince are defeated and made sport of by a plucky American girl and several American prisoners of war.

After buying a car, Richard Burton finds that his wife and daughter have become unreasonably extravagant, and is surrounded by sponging friends.

Young high school teacher Rosalie Allen rejects the love of Dr. Paul Duncan to "save" Lionel Brooks, a man down on his luck.

Thinking he has killed his friend Paul in a jealous rage, David Bergman flees his native Russia; becomes a successful lawyer in New York; and loses touch with his penniless family, who have followed him to the US.

After Pamela Martin's fiancé, lawyer Frank Steele, leaves for South America on business, her mother and another suitor, Douglas Martin, trick her into marrying Douglas by telling her that Frank is a thief. Douglas commonly hosts Bacchanalian parties at the couple's home, and after one of these revelries, during which Pamela explained the reason for her marriage to Frank, who had recently returned from South America, her husband in a drunken rage insults and then attempts to embrace her. Pamela reaches for a knife, but at that instant, she faints and awakens to find Douglas dead and herself charged with murder.

Goody Rickby has a child out of wedlock, but it dies when the father, Gillead Wingate, refuses to acknowledge the child or help the mother get medical aid. Wingate becomes one of the foremost figures in the witch hunts, and Goody plots her revenge with Dr. Nicholas, who is really the Devil.

Childhood friends Mary Lee and Vera receive two different versions of the 'birds and the bees' from their mothers. Mary Lee gets the facts, while Vera gets a prudish fairytale version. Their lives separate after graduation, Mary Lee becomes a nurse who falls in proper love with a Doctor, whereas Vera follows her mother's advice and seeks to marry a rich man, but falls for the unlawful and syphilitic charms of a wealthy cad. Mary Lee and her Doctor rescue Vera and help her get proper care after a series of revelations showing actual patients of the loathsome disease. Finally, Mary Lee and her new husband volunteer to help our boys fighting the Huns in France.

A woman detained in Germany attempts to escape so she can reunite with her American lover.

A lonely wife runs off with a traveling actor, taking her boy with her but leaving her daughter behind. The boy, Byron Bennett, grows up, and is stranded back in Mayville with a theater troupe. To make enough money to get out of town, they teach the local fire department how to put on a play. While the village cutie Grace Jessup is being shown how to act, one of the troupe tries to seduce her. Byron, knowing what the lecher is up to, even if Grace doesn't, follows the pair and chokes the man senseless.

Overcome with guilt after having an affair with her best friends husband, Clorinda hopes to escape her past by moving to Europe, where she meets Malcolm, a decent man who falls in love with her.

During World War I, Louise, a French girl, refuses to leave her château after the invading Germans take it over for use as their headquarters. A German officer, Col. von Knorr, makes repeated advances on her, but she rebuffs him.