Marian Skinner

After a brief view of Edgar Allan Poe's family background, his grandfather, David Poe, Sr., an Irish immigrant to America, and his father, David Poe, Jr., the poet's life is depicted from the death of his mother and his subsequent adoption by John Allan, to his own tortured death in 1849. Expelled from the University of Virginia for incurring too many debts, Poe nonetheless courts and marries Virginia Clemm but is disowned by his foster father. While residing in Fordham, New York, Poe tries to earn a living as a writer but meets with little financial success. Overwhelmed by their impoverished state, Virginia dies and Poe sinks into a profound depression. Always a victim of alcohol and subject to hallucinations, Poe first imagines that his neighbor, Helen Whitman, is Virginia, then plunges himself into an elaborate delusion in which his wife's spirit, various other spectres and a raven finally drive him to his own death.

Pat Dugan puts his last penny into oil prospecting and finds the oil. He deserts the old shack for his idea of what a palace should be and sends Jimmie to college. Jimmie promptly thrashes three of the students and polishes off the policeman who interferes. Then he leaves college for a partnership in a nursery business with a young Italian. Pat moves east and settles next door to Lady Blessington, but supposes the placid old lady who fraternizes with his wife to be the house- keeper. Jimmy turns up and falls in love with Joyce, Lady Blessington's god-daughter and marries her in spite of his father's commands, but when Pat sees how it all comes out he takes the full credit to himself.

Daphne Trowbridge, an impulsive and obstinate but nonetheless kindhearted young woman, lives with her aunt and uncle on their country estate. Daphne falls in love with Tom Dunstan, but when she learns that Mrs. Trowbridge favors the young man, she deserts him, whereupon he departs for the woods brokenhearted. Because her aunt dislikes Gerald, Daphne accepts his proposal, but on the day of the wedding, she discovers that Mrs. Trowbridge has liked him from the beginning. Furious at her aunt's scheming, Daphne hires the first man she meets, who happens to be a heavily bearded lumberman, to marry her and then leave. Later, however, her hired husband abducts her to his cabin in the woods, where he eventually succeeds in taming her. After he rescues her from two lecherous lumberjacks, Daphne discovers that her husband is Tom, whom she had loved all along.

Skinner is too timid to ask his boss for a salary increase, but also too timid to tell his wife he has not gotten it. He pretends to have received the raise and buys a new suit as proof. The stylish suit gives him confidence, soon he has been transformed into the dynamic and successful man he had pretended to be.

Princess Triloff, an emigrée from Czarist Russia, escapes to America where she becomes a patron of the arts. She falls in love with the verses of impoverished poet Owen Carey and becomes his anonymous benefactor. When Owen inherits a fortune from his rich Uncle Krakerfeller, he assumes his uncle's identity and confers his own upon an impoverished friend, Frank Manners. At a resort, Owen meets the princess and falls in love with her, but is chagrined to discover that she is enamored with Manners. The princess finally discovers Owen's real identity and the two fall in love.

Norma Wood, a fed-up stenographer leaves her miserly fiancé, charges lavish gowns to her lecherous boss, and sets out to experience life. She is subsequently hired by a wealthy widow to seduce the woman's son away from his current girlfriend.

A welcome guest of the French aristocracy, Monsieur Picard having been awarded the Croix De Guerre, is also a master thief who baffles the Parisian police. One night, while Picard watches an Apache dance, he learns that one of his three adopted children is seriously ill. When his car breaks down, Picard politely forces Helen Deprenay to loan him her auto, and leaves his cross as security. The next day, the police pursue Picard to the Deprenay home where the prefect warns Helen about Picard. Helen writes to the entreating Picard, and refuses to see him until he proves himself of worth to society. Disguised as Scotland Yard agent Armand DuBois, Picard is present at the Deprenay home when a necklace is stolen. After Helen covers for him, Picard catches the thief in an attempt to swindle the entire community in a stock market scheme. He informs the police that Picard no longer exists, and escapes with Helen to a new life.

Doris Standish's father insists upon her marriage to aging millionaire Cyrus W. Hopkins, but just before the wedding, the young woman runs from the house and leaps into a parked car, ordering the chauffeur to drive her quickly away. The driver is Jimmy Nevin, who, because Hopkins financially ruined his father, has agreed to help a gang of crooks in their plot to steal the bride's jewels and wedding presents. Realizing that Doris is not Mary Butler, his accomplice, Jimmy offers to accompany her home, but when she refuses to return, he takes her to the thieves' hideout.

When noted scientist John Vandam dies in the Orient, he leaves the guardianship of his eighteen-year-old daughter to his old friend Sandy Verrall. Sandy believes that Eliza is a little girl and so prepares for the arrival of a child. Displeased with the situation, Eliza decides to dress and act like a kid so that Sandy will tire of her and send her away.

Rosie Sanguinetti's parents arrange her marriage, against her will, to Antonio Mosconi, "Tony the Barber." At the wedding ceremony in her Little Italy, New York neighborhood, Rosie flees to the settlement house where she meets Jerry Van Tyne, a wealthy young man who agrees, in a drunken state, to marry her. The next day Jerry realizes the consequences of the situation.

Sylvia Palprini is a waitress at The Black Beetle, the leading bohemian café in New York City’s Greenwich Village. Among the eclectic customers is artist George Duray, whom she admires from a distance. A jealous suitor, Movros Tarkides, attacks Sylvia and she strikes him with a chair. He is later found dead and she is accused of the murder.

When a couple of scammers hold young Alice Faulkner against her will to discover the whereabouts of letters whose dissemination could cause a scandal affecting the royal family, Sherlock Holmes decides to take over the case. (Considered lost, a copy was found in 2014, in the vaults of the Cinémathèque Française.)

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While attending college in Washington, D.C., Yuki Onda, the daughter of a Japanese samurai, meets and falls in love with Pierre Le Beau, a diplomatic attaché. At the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, Pierre is sent to Japan as attaché to the Australian ambassador. When Yuki's father discovers his daughter's romance with a foreigner, he becomes enraged and betroths her to Prince Hagane for political reasons.

When the popular Broadway star Jack Rollins tells his wife, dancer Yvonne Leclaire, that he is tired of her, their backstage quarrel ends when she shoots him dead. Because Billy Jordan, a dissolute "chorus man," sees Yvonne hide the gun, she desperately agrees to marry him if he will keep quiet.

Monte Brewster learns that he has inherited $10 million from his late grandfather, but then learns that he must spend $2 million in less than a year and remain unmarried to inherit the rest of the money.

"The Stranger," an outcast who works in a saloon frequented by Peggy Bowlin, a poor girl suffering through hard times. She finds romance with Larry Darrant and her life begins to improve. They make plans to wed and leave England, but when a convict assaults Peggy, Larry gets involved and accidentally kills him. The Stranger is arrested for the murder, but he refuses to declare his innocence because he doesn't want to destroy Peggy's happiness.

When an underworld figure inherits a fortune, he goes straight and endeavors to become a respectable businessman. But on a trip to Paris, he encounters a few not-so-honest types who think he is ripe for picking.

Italian potter Tony adopts an Italian waif, little Tony, and takes him from New York to the West to realize a long-held dream of owning a ranch.

Billy Jim is a rich cowboy who tries to seduce a young girl whose father exploits a mine.

Little Betty has a luxurious home, an army of servants and the costliest of toys. But she hasn't what a child wants most of all, other children to play with. The result is that she runs away and joins a group of children from the ghetto district on the beach. In play she exchanges clothing with a little boy. That evening Betty doesn't return home. Her maiden aunt, an over-zealous guardian, is frantic. She notifies the police. The same evening the father of the boy, who has lost his position and is facing starvation, decides to turn burglar. He steals into the home of Betty's father. The household is awakened and the intruder captured.

John Smith inherits two million dollars from his wealthy aunt on the condition that he divorce his wife Lucille, a former vaudeville performer. In order to qualify for his inheritance, John concocts the idea of divorcing his wife and then remarrying her.

John Heppell, a wealthy young man about town, falls in love with Diana Laska, a noted actress, and marries her. After their child is born he tires of her and goes back to his old way of living. Infuriated at his neglect, Diana leaves him and goes abroad with Philip Goodier. He also tires of her in time, and she becomes a notorious character on the continent.

Robert Dunning commits suicide after being financially ruined by a cunning Wall Street stockbroker. Marcia Dunning vows revenge for her husband's death and becomes a roulette operator at a gambling house frequented by the stockbroker's son. She uses a magnetized ring on her finger to trick the son, who then steals from his father and causes the man's financial ruin.