Sidney Ainsworth

An English naval officer and a Corsican youth have a duel, and the Corsican is killed. The young man's sister, Marina Paoli, swears vengeance on the killer. Mr. Barnes of New York, who happened to see the duel, finds the name Gerard Anstruther engraved on the pistols.....

Peep O'Day, an orphan in a small Kentucky town, falls heir to a small fortune and begins to make up for all the lost pleasure of childhood, but Sublette, a crooked attorney, arranges for an eastern belle to show up as Peep's "niece" to steal his fortune.

Slim Cody works in the movie industry, doubling for the performers. He has a dream in which he portrays Romeo in a movie version of "Romeo and Juliet," and arranges for someone to double for him when the fight scenes get scary. ....

Slaving to perfect an invention, Noah Vale tries to keep two orphans--Rip and Patch--and himself by peddling books and is helped by Scallops, a girl who occasionally brings them food. He appeals to Fay, a wealthy relative, for help in marketing his invention and arouses the interest of Fay's pretty daughter. Sterrett, Fay's partner, steals the model but returns it when he discovers it to be worthless. Johnny Smith, Fay's secretary, is fired when he proposes to the boss's daughter; and visiting Vale's attic, he is comforted by his epigrams. Johnny takes them to a newspaper editor, and they are so successful that both Smith and Vale are hired. Vale decides to give up inventing for writing, and Johnny marries Miss Fay despite her father's opposition.

Immigrant from Ireland, Dan Canavan goes from street cleaner to husband of society belle Beatrice Newness. As a street cleaner he is trampled by horses drawing the Newness Victoria. The accident leaves on his chest a scar in the shape of a horseshoe that perpetually brings him good luck. He finds he can control the world with the wave of a red flag. He makes this power the basis of his philosophy of life, and becoming a politician, he rises quickly to the position of czar of the city.

Laura Bruce is married to John Bruce, police commissioner. She discovers her husband is enjoying a drunken revel with another woman, and vows she will obtain a divorce. After doing so she weds Paul Ramsey. His employer, Dick Turner, a libertine, offers his a responsible position in the west, and she faces a long separation. Ramsey later learns that Turner is interested in his wife and engages a man to protect her, who happens to be her former husband.

Sir Joseph and Lady Webbing are the foster parents of Marie-Louise. The couple are also in league with Verrinder, a German spy. When their work against England is discovered, they commit suicide. Marie-Louise, who has been an unwitting part of their schemes, is allowed to go to the U.S. if she promises to keep everything a secret.

Pierre Landis is insanely jealous of his beautiful young wife Joan, and his jealousy makes him take a branding iron to her to mark her as his property.

Most of the scenes are laid in a parrot-and-monkey country in South America, a land where "it is always after dinner." The Llano Kid, a Texas bad man, flees there from justice. The consul persuades him to play the long-lost son of a Castilian family, and tattoos a coat of arms on the back of the Kid's hand to make the deception complete. The Kid is taken into the household, trusted and loved by the gladdened mother. For the first time he has a home. The romance develops. And when the time comes to rob and flee he has too much manhood to break the loving mother's heart. The surprise comes when it is revealed that the man the Kid killed in Texas was the real son.

A convict being transported to Australia from England in the 1800's saves the life of a young girl during a shipwreck. Ten years later in England, she meets a brilliant attorney with secrets in his past.