When Wall Street dynamo Richard Strong rescues Edwin Rossiter from financial ruin, Rossiter is so grateful that he persuades his daughter Elinor to marry their benefactor, although she does not love him. Instead, Elinor favors her distant cousin, Charles Dalton, a dissipated member of the aristocracy who weds Zoldene, an actress, on the day of Elinor and Strong's wedding. Soon after, Dalton wearies of Zoldene and renews his attention to Elinor, now estranged from her husband.

Janet Randall, a department store clerk who longs for a fling at high society, ignores the love of the poor but honest Dan Cassidy. When vacation time comes, Janet goes to a fashionable hotel and there meets her idol, society favorite Monte Moreville. Upon requesting the bill at the end of four days, Janet discovers that the tariff is more than she can afford, and Monte comes to her rescue by offering to bail her out. In exchange, Janet must pose as his wife to fend off a woman who is threatening a breach of promise suit.

Emphasizing themes of female independence and the esteem due to the men serving in the armed forces, the plot involves a strong-willed young woman (Agnes Vernon) who defies her father in order to marry a soldier (Hobart Henly) instead of the well-to-do suitor preferred by her father. JANE offers glimpses of soldiers on parade at the then-newly built Fort Winfield Scott and other rare views of the Presidio from a century ago

The story centers around Nanette, an American girl living in a small Canadian village, who is in love with John Patricia, the eldest of five brothers. The war interrupts their romantic idyll, as everyone goes overseas to Belgium and France. Nanette becomes a Red Cross nurse and is terrorized by the evil Prussian Lt. von Eberhard.

Abby Hopkins, the eldest of a small-town newspaper-owner's five daughters, is urged by her family to marry the wealthy, twice-widowed J.B. Hanks. Abby leaves Hank on the night of the wedding and goes to New York, where she supports herself as a waitress and shares an apartment with a co-worker. At the restaurant, Abby meets J. Booth Hunter, a heavy-drinking "ham" actor, and tries to convince him to give up liquor. Hanks shows up one day and during a battle with his estranged wife, Hunter comes to Abby's rescue. Abby finally gets a divorce from Hanks, Hunter conquers his drinking habit, and Abby marries him.

Peter Drake meets and falls in love with Jackie Swazey, the daughter of a feisty suffragette and incipient politician. In order to impress her, he agrees to help Mrs Swazey in her campaign to become elected.

Young doctor Bradley Yates has been trying to come up with a serum to counteract blood poisoning, with no results. Exhausted, he takes a rest in the Blue Ridge Mountains and stays in a small mountain community. When a young schoolteacher comes to town a romance develops between her and Bradley, but the local gossips have spread rumors that he has seduced Talithy, a local girl, and will abandon her for the teacher. Complications ensue.

The rancher Jeff Bransford returns to his ancestral acres and finds them heavily mortgaged and about to be foreclosed and is defended by hired men with guns.

While in an army camp waiting to be discharged, Lt. Frank Hayden sees a fellow officer, Capt. Kincaid, attacking a girl. He stops Kincaid, thrashing him soundly in the process. However, to avoid a court-martial for striking a fellow officer, Hayden deserts and flees to the desert. He comes across Tom Doyle, who is stranded and dying of thirst, and takes Doyle back to his home. He meets and falls in love with Doyle's daughter Kitty.

Louis and August Siever, the twins sons of a German father and American mother, are traveling in Europe when war breaks out. August joins the Kaiser's army, but Louis, a supporter of the United States, is practically made a prisoner in Berlin for a year while he tries to prove his American citizenship. After a violent confrontation with Louis, August steals his brother's passport and leaves for New York with Gerda Anderson, a German spy.

Flighty Helen Halverson decides that she wants to marry Big Jim McKenzie, the boss of the logging camp her father owns, after he is temporarily blinded after he crashes his toboggan into a tree in order to avoid hitting Helen. She convinces her cousin Adele--who is actually also in love with Jim--to get him to propose. Jim's sight returns and he and Helen marry, but on the day their child is to be born, he goes blind again. Frustrated by being married to a blind man, Helen falls in love with his assistant Jean Du Bray. Complications ensue.

Actress Fay McMillan finds her child, Pauline, whom she deserted years ago, in an orphanage, but Monty, her financer, objects to her taking the girl back.

Self-made man Emerson Boyd of Every-town owns the Boyd Mills, which uses child labor and disregards health regulations, and the Boyd Chemical Company, which manufactures harmful patent medicines. Crooked politician David Duncan, the mills's general manager, misinforms Boyd about factory conditions. After Boyd's beloved daughter postpones accepting the proposal of Matthew Brand, an unambitious rich young man, until he does something for humanity, Matthew reads an exposé of the mills by editor Clifford Cole. He buys Cole's newspaper when Boyd attempts to stifle it and supports the National Tuberculosis Society's proposal to build a sanitarium in Every-town to combat the rise of tuberculosis.

The Northwest Mounties are after Cheyenne Harry for the murder of an Indian boy, and the only witness to the crime is a priest - who can't tell what he saw because the real killer, Black Michael, has confessed to him.

Soon after Pauline D'Arcy, an untutored country girl from the Northwest, is left destitute by the death of her father, she falls in love with a middle-aged married man, John Adams, whose alias is Abbott. Although never intending to marry her, Abbott promises to send Pauline to college. During her studies, she falls in love with her lover's son Richard, while at the same time establishing a literary career. She anonymously publishes a novel based on her experiences and it becomes a best seller.

ELEANOR'S CATCH is a delightful short, directed by and starring Cleo Madison. A successful actress, Madison was one of many women who directed films at Universal, particularly in the mid 1910s. In this two-reeler, she stars as a young city girl dragged into a life of crime by a ne’er-do-well suitor. A terrific surprise ending gives Eleanor and Cleo an early claim to promoting women’s equality in the workforce.

A wealthy society playboy falls in love with the daughter of a poor fisherman. After Valentino shot to fame, A Society Sensation was cut down to a meek 24 minutes so the lead would be in every scene. Title cards tried to make up for the lost scenes.

New Yorker Harriet Putnam divorces Montgomery Putnam of London and goes with her father Fordyce to Europe. In London, Harriet's apartment curtains catch fire and her screams disturb the bath of her neighbor, Lord Cardington, Earl of Pawtucket. While dousing the fire with glasses full of water, the foolish earl falls in love.

Joy reigns in a colony of struggling artists because Old Felix, a composer, has at last sold one of his symphonies. The night of its initial hearing at the grand opera house the members of the colony turn out en masse. Too poor for orchestra seats, they gather in the gallery around the old composer. The old composer is happy almost to tears, and when the last note has died away there is a cry for the composer. Felix attempts to utter a few words of thanks, but is smothered with flowers. At his studio his friends have prepared for his welcome, and it is upon his arrival there that be feels the happiness which comes of success. However, at the other end of the hall another different drama is being enacted. A girl sits beside her stricken mother, and as the merriment in the studio reaches its height, the soul of the mother departs from the body.