Social & External
Unknown Role
After a prologue where we are shown the backgrounds of Wilhelm II and Woodrow Wilson, we see the story of Conrad Le Brett from Alsace-Lorraine. Forced to fight for Germany Conrad, sees soldiers taking girls into a church to rape them and kills one who murders a baby. Shot in the encounter he is taken to a Brussels hospital run by nurse Edith Cavell where he falls in love with American nurse, Amy Gordon. After Edith Cavell assassination and the murder of Conrad’s sister Vilma by the evil Lieutenant Ober Conrad honors her dying request that he go to America and defend Alsace-Lorraine's reputation. Once there he convinces President Wilson that Alsatians should be allowed to enlist. Fighting with the "doughboys," Conrad kills Ober, and after the armistice, returns to Amy.
New England fisherman John Van Zandt sons Harold and Peter are in love with Eileen Arden, though she favors the younger brother Harold. The jealous Peter convinces Eileen that Harold is circulating false rumors about her, then convinces his younger brother to move to Boston. Six years later, John is unable to work so Harold returns to help support the family, finding employment as a lighthouse keeper. Peter jealousy is once again aroused and his drunken rage results in the death of his child, Anne. After realizing that Eileen knows of his deceit years earlier, Peter attempts to kill Harold in the lighthouse, but instead falls to his own death during the ensuing struggle.
Orphan Mary Lord, the ward of Sir Arthur Stanhope of Parliament, is attracted to Philip Carmichael, a young politician, who ignores her and goes through a supposedly mock marriage at a wild party with actress Sheelah Delayne. Years later, Philip falls in love with Mary, now married to Sir Arthur, who dies from a stroke when he sees Philip and Mary together. Remorseful, they try to keep apart but eventually marry in France. Later, Sheelah confronts Philip with their son and proof that they are married. When Philip is arrested for bigamy, Mary testifies, to her humiliation, that she and Philip are not married, and then disappears. After her son dies, Sheelah goes to France as a canteen worker and finds Mary wandering in a daze. Feeling pity, Sheelah has her marriage annulled and sends for Philip. When Mary hears soldiers sing a song she used to sing to Philip, she recognizes Philip and they resume their marriage.
Prominent New York magazine publisher Frank Clayton visits Paris, France,with his wife Elinor and young son Dick. He is shown around the city by Benjamin De Lota, an art critic who is a contributor to Clayton's magazine, and among the people he introduces to Frank is model Mimi Chardenet. Frank is immediately taken with the young beauty, and they begin an affair. When Elinor happens upon her husband and Mimi walking together, he introduces her as a new writer for his magazine. However, when they return to New York, Elinor learns of his fling with Mimi. Complications ensue.
As a derelict paints the face of a girl on a barroom floor, the plot is developed in a series of flashbacks: Robert Stevens, an artist engaged to marry Marion, a society girl, becomes charmed with a fisherman's daughter who poses for him. The society girl's brother brings dishonor upon the fisherman's daughter, and when she commits suicide the artist shields the brother. Stevens is blamed by his fiancée, who terminates their engagement. The artist becomes a derelict and is wrongfully imprisoned. Eventually Stevens is exonerated and reunited with Marion.
An actress with a wild reputation finally settles down to a sedate and pleasant marriage. One of her former lovers, an architect, arrives to disrupt her happiness by renewing their affair. She humiliates this suitor in public with her rejection, and he seeks revenge, revenge that catapults her into tragedy.
Fanny von Berg's engagement to Count Maxim von Hurtig is suddenly broken off and she is denounced by her family for a suspected indiscretion. When they are reduced to starvation by the war, the family members accept her earnings without acknowledging the source. As the hostess of a Viennese night club, Fanny becomes the mistress of a rich war profiteer. The Count, loving her still, prevents her from making further sacrifices for her or his people, and they find ultimate happiness in the prospect of a new life together. A lost film.
In this film, African-American Leroy Collins struggles with the onus placed on him by Society when he falls in love with a white woman.
Celeste de Givray is renowned throughout Europe as the most beautiful and best-dressed model in all Paris. Her press agent DuPont concocts an attention-getting publicity scheme by having Celeste undergo cosmetic surgery, then unveiling her "new" face at a posh fashion show. But thanks to a delay in the surgery, DuPont is forced to hired a substitute for Celeste, a look-alike American girl named Lulu Dooley
Young Edmond Durand (Conrad Nagel) has been reared under the autocratic influence of his aunt (Marcia Manon), who directs a large silk mill in southern France. He revolts against a stifling career planned for him and leaves home with Marcelle, a Gypsy girl (Renée Adorée). They roam the countryside with a Gypsy caravan in romantic bliss; they are inadvertently separated but at the outbreak of war are reunited. When peace is restored, the lovers find happiness together.
Sally, a girl of the tenements, is being raised by three bachelor foster-fathers, a pawnbroker, an organ-grinder and a peddler, and is very happy preparing their meals and keeping the house, while the old men bask in the attention she gives them. However, this happy home is broken up when Sally wealthy aunt appears on the scene and takes Sally back to her luxurious penthouse in order to give her the advantages of money and social position. But Sally's heart is back across the river with her plumber sweetheart, Jimmie Adams.
Opera singer Renee Dupree is in love with struggling composer Julian who falls very seriously ill. She goes to impresario Mueller for the money Julian needs but is saved from sacrificing her virtue when a jealous lover kills Mueller.
A beautiful young girl has been raised by her bitter mother to hate all men, but her beauty means that men are constantly after her. She rejects them all, leading some to believe that she may be a lesbian. To stop those rumors, she begins a platonic relationship with a young writer, but things don't work out exactly as planned.
Elder brother, Adam Andinnian, is secretly married to Rose Turner. To defend her from a man who is stalking her and making lecherous advances, Adam shoots him and is sentenced to life in prison in a penal colony. Adam's mother, who favors him, conspires to help him escape the penal colony. The escape is a failure, resulting in a violent shootout where Adam, a prison guard, and another prisoner all perish. One body is never recovered, but the men are presumed dead. Younger brother, Karl, is engaged to Lucy Cleeves, but her snobbish parents deem him unsuitable. The narrative follows the interweaving lives and the long-term consequences of Adam's imprisonment and the failed escape attempt.
A traumatized man returning home from war discovers that his wife has slipped into the underclass.
Author David Marshall is sandbagged by holdup men and loses his memory. He finds his way to a bookshop run by his friend Ladd, who takes him in with the hope of helping him to regain his memory. David there meets Hope Masterson and falls in love with her. Bill Dorgan, a gangster in love with Hope, kidnaps her, and David comes to her rescue. David is hit again on the head, and this time he regains his memory. He still recognizes Hope, however, and they look forward to a long and happy life together.
Margaret has given up her stage career to marry inventor Jerry Benson. Jerry fails to impress oil executive William Graves with his idea, but Margaret has better luck when she catches Graves' attention and she both makes the sale and becomes the object of Graves' obsession. Profits from the invention make the Bensons wealthy; however Graves schemes to steal Margaret from Jerry by swindling them out of their money and getting Broadway floozy Gloria to break up their marriage.
In South Africa, a worker in a diamond mine is sentenced to death for stealing a huge diamond he found in the mine. Before he dies he passes the stone to a local girl, Musa. Known as the "Shah" diamond, it eventually winds up in New York City. Complications ensue, involving a wealthy society matron, her jealous husband, a gang of vicious jewel thieves and a brutal gangster who owns a nightclub. A lost film.
Artist model Margot uses her “Power of Decision” to choose between two men she loves, after much distress of course!