Harry Garson Productions

Based on the Rupert Hughes novel, this film concerns the German atrocities committed in Belgium at the beginning of the Great War.

Judge Robert Appleton (Winter Hall) has led an exemplary life. His four children, however, fell short once they grew up and had to fend for themselves. When Appleton dies, his widow (Lydia Knott) explains that his last request was that each child spend one hour of contemplation with his body. The first is the youngest daughter, Daisy (Rosemary Theby), an artist of note who was betrayed and left with a son to raise out of wedlock. Next is Luke (Milton Sills), a wild young man who ran away at 19, and even though he is now married and a father, he still can't quite settle down. The eldest son, Bob (Wilfred Lucas), is next -- he wed a wealthy woman, but the marriage has no love.

A young woman, confronted by four options for proceeding in her life, is granted the ability to see what results would come from her choice of of the options. After she sees her future along three of the roads, she makes her choice.

Bored with his daily routine, Breckenridge Gamble accepts a secret mission from some oil magnates to deliver a message to President Losada of the South American Republic of Centralia. Upon his arrival, Gamble learns from Angela, the president's daughter, that her father has been imprisoned by Cortez, the leader of the revolutionaries. Gamble also is imprisoned but frees all the prisoners as well as himself by impersonating the prison comandante. After forming an army, Gamble delivers the message--a large money draft sufficient to pay the army and secure President Losada's government--and is rewarded with Angela's love.

Ally Appleby is a country boy headed for the college campus, courtesy of his Aunt Polly and Uncle Lish. They're financing his education providing that he stay away from sports. Before his train even arrives at its destination, he earns the enmity of senior Horatio Winston. Winston is determined to make Appleby into the college boob and his plan is working until pretty coed Angel Boothby reveals the plot.

Following the robbery of the Inspiration Gold Mine, Circus Lacey drifts into the border town of Esmeralda, where he saves Ethel Slocum from the unwanted advances of Red Lucas, a notorious gunman. When Ethel later also refuses to submit to the sheriff's demands, the sheriff frames her father for the mine robbery.

"Matches Mary" has sold matches on the streets of New York for many years and nobody knows her real identity. The truth is that Mary's young son had been kidnapped many years ago and she donned ragged attire while searching for the man, whom she knew, who did it. Years later day she meets him on the street and demands to know about her son, now grown to manhood. The man, now calling himself Foster, escapes but Mary track him to his home. Foster's nephew comes in and announces that he has gotten married while in college. Foster is furious and threatens violence. That night he is found murdered and Peter is accused of the crime, and is put on trial. Mary testifies she was the one who murdered Foster. She is about to be sentenced when a detective brings in a confession from two burglars who admit killing Foster. Peter asks Mary who she is and she replies she is just "somebody's mother." Later, an old friend and a lawyer bring evidence that reunites Mary with her lost son, Peter.

After robbing a small suburban bank, a gang of outlaws led by Bill Kilgore hides out in the neighboring town of Red Rock. Failing to interest Carmen Harroway by his rough romantic attentions, Kilgore forbids the terrorized townspeople to patronize her small confectionery store. A stranger, Bob Vincent, appears in town and, after becoming friendly with Carmen, inexplicably joins Kilgore's gang, passing himself off as a forger.

Norma Harvey, a newspaperwoman who devotes much of her time to relieving the sufferings of slum children, still loves her childhood sweetheart, Craig Dunlap, a lawyer who tries to cover up his wife's kleptomania by bribing a witness at her trial. Dunlap, however, is exposed and disbarred. While working in the slums, Norma encounters him in a disreputable dive and takes him to her home along with little Mazie, a blind orphan.

Wealthy contractor Michael Arnold hires civil engineer Jerry Foster to work on a dam under construction in the West. Michael hopes to enter high society and encourages his daughter, Alice, to marry Lafayette Van Renselaer, a fashionable young aristocratic. Alice is attracted to Jerry but mistakes his friendship with Kathleen O'Toole for love. Lafayette abruptly ends his affair with Kathleen when he has an opportunity to wed Alice, and accuses Jerry of trifling with Kathleen's affections.

Michael Faversham, a puritanical minister determined to stomp out immorality, orders one of his parishioners, Rose Gibbard, to confess in public that she is the mother of an illegitimate child, knowing that it will bring shame and condemnation to her. Meanwhile, he is consumed with desire for another of his parishioners, the lovely Audrey Lesden. One day the two of them find themselves alone on a deserted island, and the attraction of Faversham and the married Audrey for each other is too difficult for them to resist. Complications ensue.