Unknown to Judith Ralston, her brother Budd and his wife Vera are counterfeiters. In order to escape Fayban, a secret service agent, they leave Judith at a little town in Virginia. One day while out horseback riding, Judith is injured and rescued by Boone Pendleton, who takes her to his cabin. Later, she receives instructions from her brother to go to the Ralston house and destroy anything that she sees. Fayban, suspicious of the girl, wires Washington to shadow her.
Nancy Croyden, born of British nobility, languishes in the slums of New York after she elopes with Terrence Flynn, a groom on her father's estate. Nancy dies there, leaving behind a daughter, Susan Flynn, who grows to adulthood in the Bowery. In search of her family, Susan returns to England where she befriends Sir Bevis Neville, an English peer in disguise.
Bob and Helen decide to move to California and make a fresh start. Bob wants to buy a nut farm, but Helen dreams of being in the movies. While Bob is looking for a farm to buy, Helen is taken in by a group of scam artists who promise to make her a star. Helen's brother Willie tries to prevent her and Bob from losing all their money to the scam artists.
Genteel southern horse-breeder Col. Richard Fairfax is framed on the charge of embezzlement by Martyn Selsby, his business partner, and sentenced to jail.
Bonnie, an innocent orphan girl, is bullied by Bull Dorgan, the crude foreman of the lumber camp who frequents the saloon that her foster father owns. One day, playwright Arthur Wharton arrives in town, brokenhearted because the woman he loved, Elinor Grenville, married another for money. To protect Bonnie from Dorgan, Arthur marries the girl and then leaves her in the care of his sister Charlotte while he travels to Japan. When he returns, Elinor, now a widow, decides she wants Arthur back and so endeavors to estrange the couple by hiring a man to compromise Bonnie.
