Triangle Film Corporation

The story of a poor young woman, separated by prejudice from her husband and baby, is interwoven with tales of intolerance from throughout history.

Melia Nobbs, a young Canadian woman, supports both her invalid father Ambrose and brother Henry. When Henry faces arrest for helping himself to his employer's cash, Melia steals the amount from the star of the theater where she has been dancing and offers it to her brother if he will enlist in the army. Henry agrees and goes off to war, making Ambrose proud of his son, but when Ambrose learns that his daughter has been arrested for theft, he disowns her. Melia does not reveal the reason for taking the money and is sent to prison. Meanwhile, Henry fights bravely in France and returns home minus an arm but wearing the Victoria Cross. He finds his sister, weak and worn from overwork, in the prison hospital. Seeing her brother with his medals, Melia realizes that her sacrifices for him and her country have not been in vain, and that in her own way, she has served her country.

While conducting a pagan ritual in the woods with her friends, Kirsten inadvertently awakens the spirit of a demonic Christmas elf involved in a neo-Nazi plot to bring about the master race. After the rent-a-Santa in her department store is murdered, an unemployed, alcoholic ex-cop takes the job and the two set out to unravel the mystery.

Failing to get a loan from Nicholas Eyre, the Steel King and friend of his wife's father, Robert Lathrop induces his wife to beg for the money he plans to spend upon his mistress. He is given a check. Hurrying to Lola's apartments, he finds her in the arms of her lover, Haskell. In the fight that follows, Lathrop is killed and left in the park. Believing her husband to be a suicide because Eyre refused to advance him funds, the wife plans to revenge what she considers his murder, but enlightenment comes after terrible damage has been done.

Young Polly-Ann works in a small town inn as a maidservant. A troupe of actors comes to town and the innocent girl falls in love with one of its members. Howard Straightlane is sent to the small town by his father, to work as a schoolteacher in hopes of smartening up the young man from his wild ways. Howard soon meets Polly-Ann and saves her from the unscrupulous actor.

Disgusted when the police department fails to apprehend the murderer of her guardian, Henri Du Bois, Celeste decides to track down the criminal herself. Her only clue is a cuff link dropped near the scene of the crime on which a sphinx is engraved, and with it, she wanders through Paris' tough Moulin Noir district. When she notices a young man wearing a tie pin of identical design, she cultivates his acquaintance and eventually asks him to visit her in her home. His suspicious behavior there convinces Celeste that he is the guilty party, and although she has fallen in love with him, she has him arrested, whereupon she learns that he is Du Bois' missing son, Andre. Further detective work reveals that the real murderer is Celeste's rejected suitor, Raoul Laverne. Upon his confession, Andre is released and eventually marries Celeste.

Jennie is a slavey in a theatrical boarding house. To her the actors are all wonderful, but Montague Booth is the chief. In an accident Booth is disfigured for life and is saved from suicide by Jennie. They join a medicine show in which Booth is lecturer, but Jennie cannot stand the road. Booth leaves the show and takes up a homestead claim. The manager of the show sends one of Booth's old loves to get him back, for his services are valuable, but Belle fails after very nearly wrecking everyone's happiness.

Half-breed Joe Elk wavers between the "civilized" nature of his white father and the passion of his Indian mother. He falls in love with Alice McRae, but Alice is in love with Bruce Smithson, who is an officer at the Hudson Bay Trading Company.

Brent Brewster, formerly a Yale athlete known for his pole vaulting prowess, is unsuccessful in business. When his wealthy relatives send him out to fend for himself, Brent joins a detective agency. After Craig Lansing, a family friend, hires Brent to investigate the numerous jewel thefts in Poughkeepsie, Brent works undercover at Lansing's house party and recognizes Captain Drake, an English crook. Although Brent temporarily forgets detective work when he meets Ann, the beautiful sister of Lansing's wife Ruth, Ann's remark that $40,000 a year would be enough for her to live on brings Brent back to the job.

Pat Dugan puts his last penny into oil prospecting and finds the oil. He deserts the old shack for his idea of what a palace should be and sends Jimmie to college. Jimmie promptly thrashes three of the students and polishes off the policeman who interferes. Then he leaves college for a partnership in a nursery business with a young Italian. Pat moves east and settles next door to Lady Blessington, but supposes the placid old lady who fraternizes with his wife to be the house- keeper. Jimmy turns up and falls in love with Joyce, Lady Blessington's god-daughter and marries her in spite of his father's commands, but when Pat sees how it all comes out he takes the full credit to himself.

Sally Carter Rand, married to an elderly senator, is accused of espionage, but she is able to clear herself by proving that her mysterious knitting is actually a baby sweater.

James Ashe sends his son James Jr. off to manage a family-owned logging mill. While attending to his duties, James Jr. falls in love with a beautiful girl.

After leaving her sweetheart Jed Bronson, and small country town life, Minnie Wills (Olive Thomas) obtains a job as a model in a stylish Chicago shop and soon attracts the attention of Moncure Kelts, a wealthy playboy. Enchanted by her beauty and innocence, Moncure proposes, but once she has accepted, he loses interest in her and soon becomes desperate to get rid of her. With her emotions very much under control, Minnie agrees to break off the engagement in exchange for a limousine, a large wardrobe, and a large check, and then returns to Three Oaks. Overjoyed to see her, Jed proposes, and after their marriage, Minnie convinces him to establish a business in Chicago. The plan proves highly successful, and later, when the couple encounters Moncure on the street, Minnie thanks him for giving them their start in life.

Mary Brenton, daughter of wealthy Anthony Brenton, marries a man her father doesn't approve of, and they become estranged. When she tries to return home, her father refuses to let her in. Her daughter, Angele, disguises herself as a Belgian war refugee and her grandfather--not knowing who she really is--takes her into his house and, eventually, into his heart.

Prudence's ( Olive Thomas ) parents send her from their Pennsylvania Quaker colony to a fashionable girls seminary, hoping she can learn about the devil's tricks, instead she engages in girlish pranks, but uses her pure appearance to escape blame. Later, Prudence visits her New York aunt, a society matron, and soon attracts an array of male admirers. She falls in love with wealthy Grayson Mills, but John Melbourne, who lives off of his wife's wealth, plots to seduce her. After Melbourne loans Prudence $200 to pay a gambling debt, he forces her to go to a roadhouse by threatening to show her stern father her canceled check. At dinner, Prudence produces a love letter which Melbourne had earlier written to an actress, and says that if she is not back by midnight, her hotel clerk will show Melbourne's wife his nineteen other love letters. After Melbourne hurries her back, he discovers that she only had the one letter. Prudence now becomes engaged to Grayson.

When a revolution breaks out in a small European monarchy, the king sends his crown jewels to an American banker, Maxwell Grey, to keep them out of danger. However, Madame Levine, the head of an international jewel theft ring, finds out and plans to steal the jewels. She poses as a wealthy society matron and befriends Grey. Young French refugee Diana De Lille, who at first was taken in by Madame Levine, begins to suspect that the woman is not who she says she is, and confides her suspicions to Kenneth Grey, the banker's son, who has fallen in love with her.

A panhandler who opens car doors for people in London's theatre district finds himself involved in a deadly mystery when a corpse with a cash-stuffed wallet falls out of a vehicle and he helps himself to some of the money.

Karl Heinrich is the heir to the throne of the small European principality of Rutania, but he's a lonely child, not allowed to play with other children and knowing little about life outside the castle. When he reaches maturity, he is sent to attend the University of Heidelberg, and finds fellowshi with classmates and a blossoming love with Katie Ruder, his only friend during childhood and the niece of an innkeeper. However, political turmoil in Rutania forces him to return. War is declared. Heinrich returns to Heidelberg one last time to bid a somber farewell to his beloved Katie.

Sylvia Hamilton rehabilitates an alcoholic attorney and marries him. When World War I breaks out, she is persuaded to help the German cause and later commits suicide rather than compromise her husbands career.