Promising young lawyer Jack Dunn,, becomes a victim of drugs and loses his standing in the legal world. He passes his idle hours in the slums where he meets Nan Bishop, an underworld figure. Nan's influence helps to make a man out of Dunn and with her help he breaks his dependence on drugs and is successful in obtaining a position as a criminal lawyer. Years later, they meet again in a courtroom. Nan has been falsely accused of murder and Dunn is the prosecuting attorney. Learning that Dunn's professional future depends on his winning the case, Nan pleads guilty, but, at the last minute, the real criminal is discovered and Nan is cleared of the crime. She then accepts Dunn's offer of marriage and together they look forward to a happy future.

Fred Martin is a Southern spy. A northern dispatch bearer is captured, the signature to his messages is forged, and Martin is sent on the dangerous mission of luring the Northern troops into an ambush. He accomplishes this and a terrible battle results, in which the Federals are driven back. The work of Martin is so damaging to the North that plans are laid for his capture, and John Bruce, a secret service man, is assigned to the task.

Man-haters Pamela Gordon, Violet and Kate West, each disappointed in love, vow never to marry, and room together with a sign above their door reading "No man shall cross this threshold." When Edgar Holt enters their room to escape an irate husband whose jealousy he mistakenly aroused, he falls in love with Pamela, but she makes him leave through a window across an ironing board over a courtyard. Edgar woos Pamela but he is unsuccessful in breaking down her resolve, even though she privately softens and develops a love for him. To help her, Edgar secretly gets her a position as a confidential secretary with his firm.

Easygoing Barbara Townsend is never jealous and allows her husband, Richard (Harrison Ford), to come and go as he pleases. Townsend, however, takes her considerate nature as neglect and he believes that Barbara has ceased to love him. Vampy Dorothy Mitchell convinces Townsend that he should seek a divorce, which he does, and Barbara is too proud to object.

Tom Chatterton is called a coward because he will not enlist in the Home Guard during the Civil War -- his mother is dying and he does not wish to leave while she is still alive. When she dies and the Yankees attack, he seizes command of the Home Guard and leads them to victory, proving himself a hero and dying in the process.