Out of unlikely circumstances an underground ticket vending girl and a mail pilot fall in love.

Franz Biberkopf has served four years in prison. His return to normal life is not successful.

Das Lied ist Aus (The Song Is Ended) is a typical early-talkie German musical in every respect, save one. The story, concerning the lives and loves of show folk, ends unhappily -- and surprisingly so. The doleful denouement didn't seem to have much effect on the film's box-office appeal, since Das Lied ist Aus proved a major moneymaker.

The poor child Inger must endure trials of an almost biblical nature before her heart can be saved by true love. First, Inger is rejected by the love of her youth, Hans, who chooses a rich man’s daughter instead. Because of this, she gets thrown out into the street by her own mother but finds refuge with an acrobat in a travelling circus. When the circus performer dies in an accident, Inger gives birth to a fatherless child who doesn’t survive the night, for which she is even accused of infanticide. Guilt overwhelms Hans as he hears about Inger’s tragedies. Can Hans’ repentance save the lost Inger? (Stumfilm.dk)

Baruch Mayer, son of an orthodox rabbi from a poor shtetl in Galizia, decides to break with the family tradition and leave the shtetl to become an actor.

After ten happy childhood years, the life of David Copperfield takes an obscure turn. His mother passes away and a cruel stepfather crushes young Copperfield’s dreams and sends him to work in London. From here, the poor soul must fend for himself. Through the hard school of life, he experiences fun and tragedy, love and heartache, friendship, and deception, until he finally rediscovers his place with a dear friend from his happy childhood days. (stumfilm.dk)

A young woman is abused or abandoned by the men in her life.

Ivan, a poor Russian student, lives in Switzerland. He is unexpectedly invited to Russia by a distant relative, Princess Wirsky. To finance the journey, he works as a messenger for revolutionaries who want to depose Grand Duke Wirsky. In Moscow, he delivers the message and falls in love with Marja, the daughter of the revolutionary, but Marja's father loves Princess Wirsky and wants to betray the revolutionaries. The princess falls in love with Ivan, and jealously deports Marja to Siberia. In revenge, Ivan strangles the princess. He spends the rest of his life yearning for Marja, whom he has never kissed. When he receives the news of Marja's death, he commits suicide.

One out of three silent adaptations of the novella "Les quatre diables" written by Danish author Herman Bang. The most famous one, although unfortunately lost, is without any doubt F.W. Murnau's "4 Devils". This German version, by Danish director A.W. Sandberg, was done eight years prior to Murnau's American one, and was a big success at the time.

The film was an unauthorized adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's novel The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but the source material went unrecognized by some of the German media due to changes in the characters' names. Released in 1920, this is one of Murnau's lost films. While the film itself does not survive, the scripts and related production notes do. Because the film is lost, its full length is unknown. Dr. Warren is the Dr. Jekyll character who changes into Mr. O'Connor, a parallel of Mr. Hyde. This transformation is brought about, not by experimentation with chemicals as in Stevenson's original, but through the supernatural agency of a bust of Janus (the Roman god of duality), which Warren purchases in the opening sequence as a gift for his sweetheart, Jane. When she refuses the gift, horrified, Warren is forced to keep the statuette himself.