Sonia Smirnov, a Paris opera singer known as "The Black Butterfly", starts an affair with young Alan Hall. Hall, however, is still pining over his previous lover, a young peasant girl.

When his friends decide that "Happy Jack" Lewis needs a wife, they place an ad in the paper for one. Glad Mason replies and sends her picture. Jack's pals decide she is the one, and after he sees her picture, Jack thinks so too -- until the saloon proprietor points out that maybe she doesn't look anything like her photo. In fact, she could be an old hag!

John Kendall was brought up in a wealthy family, but when his father loses the family fortune and then dies, John is left penniless. He joins the army and rises to the rank of sergeant. He soon meets and falls in love with Edith Ferris, the daughter of Col. Dickinson. When he talks to her at a party, Lt. Burkett upbraids him for fraternizing with an officer's family. Edith's mother, not wanting her daughter getting involved with a lowly enlisted man, conspires with Lt. Burkett to discredit John.

Snobbish attorney Charles 'Beauty' Steele loses his wife due to his drinking and his airs at the same time that his brother-in-law absconds with funds belonging to one of Steele's clients. In search of the thief, Steele is attacked and left for dead. He is rescued by a kindly couple, but suffers from amnesia. He starts life afresh and is happy, until the return of his memory sends him back to resolve his old involvements.

Our Mutual Girl was unique. Not quite a serial, not quite a newsreel and not strictly an advertisement, it combined elements of all three. In 52 weekly one-reel episodes, running from January 19, 1914 to January 11, 1915, the Mutual Girl outwitted villains, saw the sights of New York, met with theatrical and political celebrities (who frequently helped her out of trouble) and tried on fashionable outfits in chic stores. The fashions were an early example of product placement, although apparently not paid placement.