A young girl travels west to live with her uncle during the California Gold Rush only to find that he has been killed by Indians and his identity assumed by an outlaw.

Angela maintains a coastal lighthouse in Italy, where she awaits the return of her brothers from the war. She learns they are casualties and takes solace in the arms of an American sailor washed ashore. However, the sailor turns out to be a German spy, and she is torn between her love for him and her realization that he is part of the enemy force that has destroyed her family.

Dr. Harcourt's daughter, Edith, falls sick. While treating her, the doctor is summoned to the sickbed of a poor neighbor's daughter who is also gravely ill. The doctor is torn between his duty, and concern for his own daughter's welfare. Duty wins out and he rushes to the bedside of the neighbor's child, promising his distraught wife that he will return home as soon as possible. He finds the child near death. Meanwhile, Edith takes a turn for the worse and a servant is sent to bring him home. Dr. Harcourt is faced with the dilemma of returning to save his own child, or staying to save another. He stays. When the neighbor's child is out of danger, he returns home to find that his own daughter has died.

Joe Merrill, son of the millionaire owner of a chain of 5 and 10 cent stores, poses as Joe Grant, and takes a job in the stockroom of one of his father’s stores, to prove that he can be a success without his father’s influence. There he meets stockroom girl Maggie Johnson, and they fall in love. This causes problems, because Mrs. Merrill had planned for her son to marry Millicent Rogers, a high society girl.

Gwen's family is rich, but her parents ignore her and most of the servants push her around, so she is lonely and unhappy. Her father is concerned only with making money, and her mother cares only about her social position. But one day a servant's irresponsibility creates a crisis that causes everyone to rethink what is important to them.