Phil-for-Short

To keep his social-climbing wife and daughters in the lifestyle to which they are accustomed, wealthy George Hunter makes some large investments in the stock market, but the stocks crash and he loses a great deal of money. His wealthy aunt offers to bail the family out, but complications ensue.

Sylvia, a model in the shop of a fashionable dressmaker, is introduced to the Hicks family, which recently has acquired a fortune through iron ore deposits discovered on their farm. Octavia Hicks sees in the cultured but unpretentious Sylvia a good match for her son Henry and invites the young woman to visit the Hicks home. Two other visitors, Frank Hayward and his accomplice Annie, are masquerading as a count and a princess in order to con the country-born millionaires out of their money. The two are introduced to Sylvia, who soon discovers their plots and exposes them. A mysterious foreign gentleman appears and announces that the fashion model is actually the Princess Sylvia of Karalyn, but she renounces her title to marry Henry.

Nance Molloy's cheerful disposition, in sharp contrast to the slum near the cathedral where she and her parents make their home, earns her the nickname "Sunshine Nan." However, her fights with the cathedral choirboys, led by MacPherson Clark, gets her into trouble. For interfering in a family squabble, she and her pal, Dan Lewis, are sent to reform school for five years, and upon her release, she becomes a stenographer in the elder Clark's shoe factory. Dan meanwhile has taken a job in the factory's chemical department, where he invents a dye process that promises to make him rich.

Every night, Madge Dow of the Middleport Orphanage, imagines herself in the lighted room in the house across the way, being tucked into bed by a beautiful mother. After Madge and her friend Spotty escape to visit settlement worker Letty Thompson, and Letty encourages them to investigate the house, they find a grumpy, gout-ridden old Major there, still irritated over his daughter's marriage years ago without his consent.

Pampered Frederic "Freddy" Pritchard, warned by his father that he must work or be disinherited, learns how to crack safes to help his girlfriend Gloria Nevins, whose villainous uncle holds security for the family jewels, as well as the right to vote on the disposition of the Nevins Motor Works. After Freddy steals the papers with the aid of his valet Smithson, Gloria's uncle locks him in a warehouse to prevent him from attending a crucial stockholders' meeting. Freddy escapes and saves the factory for Mrs. Nevins, who gives him power of proxy. Pritchard, Sr., pleased with his son, consents to Freddy's marriage to Gloria.

Press agent Jack Bartling persuades a local Suffragette leader, Mrs. Eubanks, whose husband is a Senator and soap manufacturer, to hire him for publicity. He falls for her daughter Nell and through various schemes and a bit of subterfuge Jack convinces both parents he’s the right guy for their daughter.

During a lawn party at his New York home, steel magnate Theodore Morton claims he is bankrupt as a deterrent to Lord Dormer and the Duke of Medonia, two fortune hunters competing for his niece, Betty. After the suitors depart, unscrupulous Carl Gates is informed by his fiancée, banker's secretary Adele Shelby, that Theodore was lying. Carl pursues Betty, who accepts his proposal with the belief that the marriage will benefit her uncle. During a yachting expedition with Carl, Betty falls overboard and is rescued by architect Tom Waring, who is competing in a race. Tom wins with Betty on board, and a romance develops.

Keith, an artist, begins to go blind as a result of having fallen out of a tree as a child. His fiancé Dorothy, a wealthy heiress, had previously said that she thought blind people were "disgusting", and he refuses to see her. Dorothy plans to have her father, an eye surgeon, perform an operation on Keith that may help him regain his sight, but things don't go as planned.

Fernande marries a man and schemes to get his wealth when his expected death occurs. But he dies before he can change his will. She next tries to kill the son who inherits, but he outfoxes her.

Romantic melodrama of musical comedy star Juliette La Monde's thoughtless pursuit of love and pleasure with various men until her ultimate redemption through sacrifice.

Ilda Barosky, a Jewess whose father was killed by Russian soldiers, is a violin student in love with Alexis Nazimoff, son of the Russian aristocracy. Alexis' father arranges a marriage of convenience between Alexis and Olga Karischeff, the daughter of the ambitious minister of police and attempts to shame Ilda at the betrothal celebration. Defiant, Ilda is whipped before the entire assembly. Alexis rushes in to rescue her and terminates his engagement to Olga. In retaliation, Karischeff sentences both Ilda and Alexis to ten years in Siberia as his last official act. The couple attempt to escape their Siberian captivity, are caught and face a firing squad until Count Nazimoff, who has assumed Karischeff's position as minister of police, arrives with a pardon. The couple return home, and the penitent count finally grants them his blessings.

Maida Brown, a rich widow, is being visited by wealthy aircraft manufacturer Louis Letchworth at the Brown family estate in Bayport. The family maid notices the pair's affectionate behavior toward each other and, aghast, reports the incident to Maida's father, the head of the local Purity League. The local citizenry is so outraged by this scandalous behavior that they force Maida to leave town. Meanwhile, Harold Brown, her late husband's brother, is aware that the family estate will revert to him if Maida remarries, so he spies on her in order to prove that she and Louis are married, so Harold can get the family fortune for himself.

A man discovers that he has two personalities--and one of them is a notorious strangler.

Hope Dugan rescues young Jim McTavish from a beating at the hands of his cruel father, who then is himself beaten in a fight with Hope's father. Seeking revenge, Red kills Dugan and is hanged, leaving Jim and Hope orphaned. They are adopted by two old miners, Sam Hawks and Bill Higgins, who later sell their mine to send Hope to school but are robbed of the money by Brandt, who has offered to buy the claim. Jim learns of Brandt's treachery and recovers the money in a holdup but is arrested. Hope returns to find that Sam has died, and she believes that Jim is dead too until Bill tells her he is being framed for robbery. She and Bill hold up the stagecoach and rescue Jim, pretending to shoot him. United and free again, Hope and Jim face a happy life together.

When Patricia "Patty" Hudson, a struggling New York writer becomes ill, her doctor, advising a restful occupation, arranges for her to be the private secretary to the aged James Winthrop, Sr. The closeness of their resulting relationship disturbs Winthrop's relatives, Mrs. Harrison Tyler and her daughter Sally, who hope to inherit his fortune.

Refusing to marry her stepmother's choice, Gail Prim leaves her life of luxury, after cutting her hair, dressing in her butler's clothes and stealing money and jewels from her father's safe. Spending the night in a barn, she introduces herself to the thieves already there as the Oskaloosa Kid, a wanted criminal, and barely escapes their struggle to get her loot. Meanwhile, the real Oskaloosa Kid kills Reginald Paynter and throws Nettie Penning, whom Reginald was trying to seduce, onto the highway.

Wealthy Lucy Winter falls in love itinerant gardener George Turner much to her father's chagrin. In flashback we find there is a deep seated reason for his truculence, one that caused great sorrow to all. In time things are resolved after much soul searching.

A woman sacrifices everything for her husband's career.

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.

Madge Evans, World Film Corp. juvenile star, is sent to her Quaker grandparents, Timothy and Tabitha Mendenhall, when her father and mother go to serve in World War I. After bidding farewell to the World stars, Madge goes to her grandparent's home where she experiences stern discipline.

Tom Whitney, well connected but a social derelict because of his weakness for drink, is released from the draft because of an old football Injury, but a policeman persuades him that he can still do his bit in the shipyards. He takes a job in the yard owned by the man to whose daughter he was engaged in happier times. Three German propagandists seek to foment a strike to delay the work, and largely through Tom's efforts the plan goes amiss and the strike is called off. Rehabilitated by work, the launching of The Liberty is a forecast of his own rebirth.

When his son is reluctant to fight for democracy Philip Nolan II shares with him the secret he has long held, the treason of the first Philip Nolan "The Man Without a Country." He explains how the elder Nolan played into the hands of Aaron Burr; how Thomas Jefferson was elected president over Burr; how Alexander Hamilton prevented the conscienceless Burr becoming governor of New York; the duel between Hamilton and Burr; how Philip Nolan was later arrested on his wedding night for aiding Burr, who had conspired to start a rival government in the south to wage war against the United States, and how he was later banished from the United States for saying "Damn the United States! I wish I might never hear its name again," and how Philip Nolan died kissing the flag of the country he had execrated. Understanding how important freedom is the younger Nolan rushes to enlist.

Margot, the motherless daughter of a New England fisherman, dreams of a better life. After rescuing the wealthy Jack Rutledge's mother, Margot is taken in by the family. Jack and Margot fall in love against the will of his mother and must find a way to marry.

Joe Louden is an outcast in the small town of Canaan, and is especially disliked by Judge Pike. There is one inhabitant, however, who is fond of Joe -- the pretty but poor Ariel Tabor. But she inherits some money and goes to Paris with her father.

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.