Young Nellie Jarvis, daughter of a wandering couple, witnesses the murder of a woman by a man and his wife. Years later, "Little Miss Yes'm", as Nellie is known, returns to the area as an orphan. Locals Mr. and Mrs. Hilton, though poverty stricken, take her into their family. Fully integrated with the loving Hiltons, she wishes to relieve them of their financial strain. Nellie travels to a nearby farmhouse to gain employment from depraved Martin Cain and his paranoid wife.

A religious zealot and his nephew are thrown together on a South Seas Island with an alcoholic beachcomber and a native dancer. A battle to see who will 'civilize' whom ensues.

The prospector had taught the Indian boy the doctrine of peace. When his tribe resisted the attack of another tribe the boy did not take part. The din of the battle, as the horsemen circled them again and again, the moans of men caught under falling horses struck terror in the boy's heart The incensed warriors cast him from the tribe with the brand of a coward. It was then that his opportunity came to follow the white man's wonderful doctrine. "Big love man lay down life for friend,"

Soon after their engagement, Bill goes to sea, and Emily vows to stay true until his return. Unknown to her, Bill marries another woman from a different port. Emily waits faithfully for six years, finally becoming dangerously ill. When Bill suddenly appears in town with his family, Joe, who has loved Emily all along, forces Bill to make Emily's final moments happy by pretending he has returned to marry her.

After her mother's death, Ruth struggles to support herself as a seamstress. While Ruth delivers shirts to the factory owner, the owner's son steals some money and Ruth is accused of the crime. She flees the ghetto of New York's Lower East Side and hides in the country where she meets a young farmer.

Two sisters want to know whether there is romance in their future. One sister pulls the petals off of a flower, while the other has her fortune told by a gypsy. When the gypsy tells the fortune so as to serve his own purposes, complications soon develop.

A group of collegiates decide to go for a splash. A lunatic, having escaped from a nearby asylum, heads for the surf, brandishing a knife. Innocent seaside fun becomes a struggle against a maniac on the water.

Ralph Grey visits France with his shipbuilder father, and falls in love with Blossom, granddaughter of his father's friend, a Civil war veteran not reconciled with the Union. Blossom, however, is engaged to a French nobleman. When war breaks out, Ralph enlists, while his brother Jim, a heartbreaker, is drafted.

Wild Flower follows her banished lover, Gray Fox, into the wilderness. Her departure is witnessed by Silver Fawn, who mistakenly thinks Wild Flower is stealing her fiancé. Silver Fawn sets out in pursuit and jealously attacks Wild Flower. They fall into the river but are rescued by Gray Fox.

A rich nobleman steals a perfume merchant's wife just prior to the French Revolution, in which the perfumer is a leader of the peasants. His priest made him swear an oath to leave vengeance to God, however.

During the Civil War, a father living in a border state leaves to join the Union Army. After he leaves, Confederate troops forage on his property, where a soldier encounters one of his daughters. The father himself is wounded on a hazardous mission and must run for his life, pursued by Confederate soldiers.

A man sacrifices a new marriage for the happiness of his daughter.

Joe, "The Bad Man of San Fernand," is one tough customer. He sets his sights on a lovely young lady who spurns his advances and elopes with a fresh-faced young cowpoke. An angry Joe eventually gets his revenge.

In the Kingdom of Never-Never Land there live a great Lord and Lady, each presiding over their own domain. This great Lord goes for a stroll through his estate and coming to the border of his own land he is struck by the entrancing beauty of the contiguous estate, so like his own, that the inclination to intrude is irresistible. His peregrination is halted by the appearance of the great Lady, who is indeed as fair as the flowers that clothe her land. He introduces himself and invites her to stroll with him in his gardens. She is in like manner entranced by the beauty of his possessions. How alike in beauty are they; a veritable fairyland. If they were only one, for it seems they should be. This thought is mutual, and the Lord proposes a way, a marriage, and so a betrothal of convenience ensues. They know nothing of love and so are content in the anticipation of being Lord and Lady of all Never-Never Land.

Gertrude chooses Jim over Jack, which makes Jack very jealous. Later Jim dies, and Jack marries Gertrude. He finds himself once again very jealous of the late Lucky Jim.

This story of the Black Hills consistently tells of the unrequited love of a Sioux brave for his chief's daughter, and how he premonished the awful results of her ominous marriage with a white cowboy. Clear Eyes, the daughter of Chief Thunder Cloud, is beloved by Comata, a Sioux brave, but having met and listened to the persuasion of Bud Watkins, a cowboy, leaves her mountain home to become his squaw. Poor little confiding Clear Eyes lives only for Bud, and he at first seems devoted to her, but at the end of two years, a little papoose arriving meanwhile to bless their union, he tires of her, and courts Miss Nellie Howe, a white girl, who thinks him single. Comata, however, has unremittingly watched his movements, and vows to avenge his lost one. Following him to the white girl's home, he sees enough to convince him of the whelp's villainy, so he goes and reveals the truth to Clear Eyes.

A young maiden is seduced by a charming traveling peddler who persuades her to steal from her host family in order to repay his gambling debts.

A wagon train heading west across the great desert runs out of water, and is attacked by Indians. One man -- their last hope -- is sent out to find water.

Ramona, residing on her wealthy Spanish adoptive mother's rancho in California, falls in love with the Indian Alessandro. When Ramona is denied permission to marry Alessandro, the lovers elope, only to find a life of great hardship and unhappiness amidst the greed and injustice of the white landowners.

A bored Lady Helen goes slumming as a domestic in a boarding house. There she falls in love with a sensitive young musician. The other women in the house are jealous, and accuse her of trying to steal the musician's violin. Lady Helen retreats to her own home, and arranges a position for the musician which allows them to be together.