Filmed in Cuba, A Message to Garcia is an adventure story based on the writings of Elbert Hubbard

Jack Brookfield, a gambler with clairvoyant and hypnotic powers, is able to win at cards through his unique gift. But when he inadvertently hypnotizes young Clay Thorne, Thorne kills an enemy of Brookfield's while under a trance. No one believes Brookfield's protestations that Thorne is innocent of any murderous intent

Natali, a Hindu, marries an Englishman, Sir Christopher Madgwick. They have a daughter who is kidnapped by Natali's former suitor Sani. The girl is handed over to be trained as a vestal virgin. Natali dies and Madgwick returns to England, taking with him the precious ruby that Natali had snatched from Sani in a struggle. Years pass; Sir Christopher remarries and has two more children who mistreat him and Sani dies, revealing to the priests the location of the ruby, which he stole from them in the first place.

Helen Moore (Grace Williams) runs off with the nephew of Senator Foote, but when their car breaks down, they go to a hotel. A conference is going on there, and the boss politico is choosing his candidate for district attorney. Hugh Graham is the boss's favorite, and also Helen's ex-fiancee. The nephew tries to force himself on her and Graham hears her cries for help. When he rescues her, he is seen by his rival, Gregory, who assumes they are having an affair. He threatens to expose this, and to protect Helen, Graham withdraws from the nomination.

An illegitimate child of the slums comes to faith. Later, she chooses to labor in a canning factory in order to investigate its poor conditions, not realizing she has a significant connection to the cold-hearted factory owner.

Viola Dana plays Eleanor, a minister's daughter who comes to New York to visit her older sister, a successful businesswoman. Eleanor manages to get a job as a nurse in a major metropolitan hospital. One night, she is called upon to look after a drunken tourist, who turns out to be her hometown sweetheart Roger (Pat O'Malley).

Young lord of Whitehall Manor, Sir Anthony Elliott, becomes secretly engaged to Elinore Vane, but she marries his brother Paul. Resentful Anthony, decides to go to America, Nina Desmond, whom he earlier rescued from a fall, asks to go with him, but he refuses. Nina overhears him also refuse Elinore, whom Paul mistreats.

The father of a working class family is having trouble finding a job, because the local textile mill is hiring only inexpensive child labor. Reluctantly, he allows his oldest daughter to work in the mill. Meanwhile, in New York, the wealthy businessman Hanscomb is being urged to speak out against child labor, but he declines to do so. Then, while Mrs. Hanscomb and her daughter are traveling, the young girl accidentally wanders away, gets lost, and is taken in by the working class family. To help them, she takes a job in the mill. While this is taking place, Hanscomb has initiated a search for the daughter even as he goes about building up his financial empire.

William Thompson slips away to New York, leaving his wife and daughter to shift for themselves. He obtains a station and finally becomes head waiter in one of the gay restaurants of the Great White Way. As years slip by his daughter becomes star-struck. Harry Valentine, the manager, notices her pretty face and tries to take her from town with him, although he has no position in the company to offer her. This she declines, but when he later writes her that he will marry her if she will come to New York and will also place her on the stage, she decides to leave her mother and accept the offer. Of course, Valentine has no intention of marrying her and when he meets her in New York he takes her for a little supper at the restaurant before the supposititious wedding ceremony and thus Thompson is brought face to face with his daughter.

Monsieur is a prosperous man in Paris, and is just sending his young daughter to complete her education at one of the nearby convents. From the affection shown between father and daughter it is evident that her mother no longer survives. News reaches him of the disaster which sweeps away his entire fortune and leaves him penniless. He writes to his daughter and tells her of the great change in their affairs, and that America seems the only hope of retrieving his fortunes. In New York, we find that he has taken a very modest little apartment, to which he, months later, brings the daughter, who takes up her share of the work and does the cooking. She receives an invitation from a girl chum to attend a party, where she meets the girl's brother, with whom she falls in love. When he and his sister come to call at the little apartment they are welcomed by Monsieur, but as the old man has an engagement at the club, departs.