Zaza is an actress and the favorite at an open-air theater in a small French town. When diplomat Bernard Dufresne comes to the village, he stays away for fear he will fall for her. But during one performance, while Zaza is singing on a swing, her rival cuts the rope and she falls. Zaza is badly injured and she makes Dufresne's acquaintance. A romance quickly springs up and he installs her in a villa. Their happiness is marred, however, when his wife appears.

Rex Radcliffe, vice president of the Northern Atlantic Railroad, is opposed by company president William Harding in his desire to put over a deal that would jeopardize the stockholders of the Interstate Railroad. Using thought control, he causes Weer, Harding's discharged secretary, to murder his ex-boss. Weer is arrested for the murder. Radcliffe then puts Harding's daughter, Helen, also under his influence. John Bonham, Interstate president, becomes interested in the case, and with the aid of Mrs. Weer he exposes Radcliffe, who then commits suicide.

An expose of the methods used by a police-department to extract a confession from a suspect, regardless of innocence or guilt, and the effect and consequences on a family when an innocent member breaks under the interrogation methods and confesses to a crime he did not commit.

An old inventor is robbed of his inventions by an unscrupulous rich man. When the inventor dies, his daughter Violet goes to New York and joins the "Follies," where she is advertised as "The Belle of New York." The rich man's son is infatuated with Violet, and is introduced to her anonymously as Jack. When Violet learns of Jack's identity, she casts him off. He takes to drinking and she joins the Salvation Army. Jack is attacked in an underworld saloon just as Violet enters in Salvation Army attire. She nurses him at his home. When Jack's father discovers with whom Jack is in love, he begs forgiveness for the wrong he did Violet's father.

The daughter of a Chinese mandarin is sentenced to death for her secret marriage to an American. Their child, raised in the mandarin's palace, grows up and escapes to seek her father, now a high-ranking official in the Philippines.

Elaine Brooks marries Robert Ames, a junior member of the Department of Justice. Mrs. Durand, a spy uses underhanded means to steal important papers from Ames, which she gives to her superior, Dr. Kemp. Although she is innocent, Elaine becomes implicated in this plot.

A story of the First World War, told in semi-documentary style, focusing on the iniquities of the German war machine, and with its dramatic center the sinking by a German U-boat of the passenger liner Lusitania in 1915.

Anne Blair is a model at a modiste's shop who accepts the attention of wealthy Thomas Brockton so she can help support her invalid mother. One day Brockton tries to force himself on her and she stabs him. Later that day Anne finds out that her mother has died, and delirious from the shock, she wanders out into the snow where she is found, unconscious, by artist Richard Steel.

A wealthy financier is tricked by a pair of spies into giving millions to foreign powers. His daughter is suspicious and hires a Detective, who is able to foil the foreign agent's plans. Meanwhile, the daughter has fallen in love with a fellow from the enemy camp, but all ends well as his true identity is revealed as a member of the U.S. secret service.

A woman sacrifices everything for her husband's career.

Bob Deering on his way to business meets his sweetheart, Molly Sherman. He arrives at Milliken and Co., stockbrokers, his place of employment, just in time to save Herman, Zalmon Pinsker's 14-year-old son, from a very rough engagement with the other messengers in the office. For this act Herman takes him to his father's shop and obtains a suit at wholesale, and it is here that Bob meets Ike Mandell, who is in love with Dora, the daughter of Pinsker.

Joan, a refined young Salvation Army volunteer, fall in love with a gangster.

Lieutenant Commander Colton, U.S.N., is in love with Caroline Austen, daughter of a prominent political power in Washington. Colton has a rival in James Archer, a journalist of prominence, unscrupulous and secretly in league with the Ruanian Ambassador, who is endeavoring to obtain for his country inside information as to the United States naval resources.

Mr. Williams, a stern father and man of wealth, disinherits his son Hugh, for marrying Rose, a seamstress. Twenty years later, although Sose is practically supporting her sick husband, their little store is taken from them and they are obliged to move, with Martha, their daughter, to the tenement district.

Enemy agents under the leadership of "Emanon" conspire with pacifists to keep the American defense appropriations down at a time when forces of the enemy are preparing to invade. The invasion comes, and New York, Washington, and other American cities are devastated.

A woman attempts to attract a man by using a thousand-year-old love potion.

This LOST film was Clara Kimball Young's first feature, and her last film for Vitagraph, where she had made all of her short films. It was a sensational success and launched her as the most popular star that year. Its Russian setting was drawn upon by Young for many more of her features. Two short clips of the film exists in Warner Brother's 1931 Vitaphone short "The Movie Album," and have been mounted on Internet Archive and Google Video. One scene shows the meeting of Helene's terrorist cell with an extra alleged to be Leon Trostky. The other clip appears to be when she and Lennox are visiting the Weletsky's. (cont. http://web.stanford.edu/~gdegroat/CKY/reviews/mow.htm)

Mark Stetson, a scheming politician, entangles the Brandons, husband and wife, and their friend, Antoinette, in his smuggling schemes and engineers their arrest, to protect himself. Edited into Shadows of the Past (1919).

Eric Temple is a composer whose rival, both in romance and work, is Sir Geoffrey Pomfret , a nobleman with few scruples. The woman they both love is Margaret, the daughter of Lord Neville. To get rid of his competition, Pomfret tells Lord Neville that his wife, Lady Neville, is in love with Eric. Then, when Eric is attacked by thugs and lays unconscious in a hospital, he steals his opera too.

The Simpsons go for a picnic in the woods. After luncheon, while mother and father enjoy a nap, Betty, their beautiful daughter, strolls away, picking flowers. When near a hillside, Betty sees a snake and screams. She starts to run away, but bumps into Billy Gilwater. He kills the snake and Betty calls him a hero.

Using hypnosis and two agents, Jerry manages to get rid of his mother in law.

Thinking that her husband is paying more attention to his work and to their little daughter, Nina, than to her, Cleo Morin runs away with Henri Mordan. On the afternoon of their elopement, Morin, who is a ballet master, is seriously injured on the stage, and the doctor tells him that his spine is so affected that he will never be able to walk again.

It is sometimes decidedly difficult to get a little privacy on shipboard. Several times Jack Hardy almost reaches the proposal point with Marion Van Sickles, but each time the fates are against him. Marion and her mother are on their way home from a vacation in Europe and board the boat at Liverpool at the same time as Jack, who is very much struck by Marion's appearance. After a little flirtation on the boat, he believes that his feelings are returned and is about to propose. Just then mama comes along with Count Brainlesse, whom she wishes to marry Marion. The proposal is postponed. Again and again Jack tries to come to the point, being constantly interrupted by someone, either the count or mama, or the grouchy owner of the deck chair he has taken. First the grouch, then mama, and then the count, get sea-sick and at last Jack has Marion alone. Alas, the time has not yet come.

Left destitute by the death of her young husband, Ethel Wynne lives with her old nurse, Hester O'Brien, a laundress. During the day Ethel works as a clerk in a toy store, leaving her babies in the care of Hester, and in the evenings, helps out by doing ironing and housework. One day, while she is at the store, Harley Clarke, a wealthy bachelor, comes in with a group of boys and lets them select whatever toys they fancy. It is his birthday, and. seeing the children hungrily eyeing the window display, he has decided to celebrate the day by treating them. Ethel is very much impressed by Mr. Clarke's evident kindliness, and after he has left the shop, she gets his name and address from Mayme, the girl who waits on him. When she arrives home, she finds Hester very sick and is obliged to call a doctor, who has her taken to the hospital. Ethel is now in a sorry plight. She has no one to take care of the baby while she is away at work, and no means of supporting herself at home.

A silent crime film in which the wealthy landowner Lorenzo, who has been taunting poor Miguel and his family for years, eventually gets his comeuppance.

Virginia Jameson, a girl of lovely disposition, is wooed by a man much older than herself whom she very much dislikes, but who stands very high in the favor of her parents. She might have married another man had not fate decreed otherwise. She meets and accidentally escapes the man she could have loved and would have married; she stooped to tie her shoe-strings, diverting her attention from him. Had their eyes met, both their lives would have been different. Leroy Farley, the man favored by her parents, prevails and she marries him. Her life is unhappy, notwithstanding his great riches and social prominence.