During World War I, Francine D'Espard, a young French woman, meets William Holliday, a U.S. Army officer at the front, and they become engaged. Returning to America, William finds his father at the mercy of his business rival, Ezekiel Bates. Shortly after, when Francine arrives in America to marry her fiancé, she is informed that her lover is about to marry Bates's daughter Susan. Her love now turning to hate, Francine devotes herself to the task of destroying her former suitor.

Bonnie, an innocent orphan girl, is bullied by Bull Dorgan, the crude foreman of the lumber camp who frequents the saloon that her foster father owns. One day, playwright Arthur Wharton arrives in town, brokenhearted because the woman he loved, Elinor Grenville, married another for money. To protect Bonnie from Dorgan, Arthur marries the girl and then leaves her in the care of his sister Charlotte while he travels to Japan. When he returns, Elinor, now a widow, decides she wants Arthur back and so endeavors to estrange the couple by hiring a man to compromise Bonnie.

Jim Crosby, the product of a broken home, becomes a gangster and goes to prison. Meanwhile, Ann Payton, an heiress, converts a saloon into a mission. She is engaged to her father's secretary, Temple Vaughn, a gambler. Jim is released from prison and seeks shelter at the mission. Temple becomes indebted to gambler Phil Johnson and is forced to arrange a crooked poker game involving some of his wealthy friends. Jim overhears the plot and, realizing that Temple is Ann's fiancé, robs the poker game and puts a check Temple forged into Temple's own pocket.

When New York playwright Richard Warrington returns to his home town, Republican bosses nominate him for mayor. The Democrats, alarmed at Richard's popularity, decide to unearth a scandal that will ruin his chances of winning and quickly discover that, months before, actress Katherine Challoner had spent the night in Richard's apartment. Although it simply had been the result of Katherine's fainting spell, the home-town Democratic newspaper turns the overnight visit into an illicit rendezvous between two lovers.

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.

Lelia Crofton, a Louisiana belle of the 1860s, loves Burleigh Mavor. By chance, she sees one of her father's black stablemen making love to a neighbor's maid, whom she supposed was white. The incident shocks Lelia and leaves a great impression upon her. When she rejects suitor Steve Daubeney, he threatens to expose a damaging secret about her mother, whom she has never met. Remembering the incident with the neighbor's maid, Lelia worries that her mother might be black, and when Daubeney learns of her fears, he leads her to believe that they are well-founded.

When beautiful Salomy Jane resists the romantic advances of a young ruffian, she is rescued by Jack Dart, who has his own additional reasons for tangling with the man. Jack fights the ruffian and kills him. He escapes with the law on his trail, for it is (wrongly) presumed that he is also the man who held up the stagecoach. Salomy Jane comes to his rescue when he is captured and about to be lynched.