Peggy O'Neil

Ludwig "Old Dutch" Streusand and his daughter Violet live in New York, and after years of hard study and labor Old Dutch completes his invention: the "teloptophone," a device which, when attached to a telephone, enables the speaker to see the party at the other end of the wire.

Cyma Roget, a beautiful young woman, has fallen under the influence of the evil Hindu scientist Chandra Dak, who can cast her at will into a hypnotic state resembling death. Chandra Dak's power over Cyma wanes as his love for her grows, however, and one night she escapes and takes refuge in the atelier of three young and struggling Bohemian artists. During her stay at the atelier, she becomes an artist's model and forms an attachment to one of the artists, Paul Bridere, but soon Chandra Dak falls out of love with Cyma and sends her into a hypnotic coma.

Peggy sells newspapers on the streets of Chicago, saving her money until she can afford to open a small newsstand called the "News Emporium". Although she has to support her younger brother and sister, Peggy manages to give a penny away every day to help the less fortunate. Millionaire Andrew Kimbalton, one of Peggy's customers, offers her a dollar a day to give away for him, but she declines, telling him that the pleasure of giving lies in giving yourself. He then asks Peggy to teach his only daughter Ann the art of philanthropy, and she agrees.

In 1906 Sweden, Captain Lars Larson (Knute Erickson) goes on a sea voyage, leaving his wife (Marcella Daly) behind expecting their first child. Unbeknownst to him while he is at sea, a bitter rival kidnaps her and makes it look as though she left him willingly. When he returns and discovers their home abandoned, he all but goes mad with bitterness and rage, destroying their home. In the years that follow, Larson becomes a sadistic, drunken reprobate of the sea, working for smugglers carrying all kinds of illegal cargo, including drugs -- and human cargo.

A "stranger from the city" arrives in a rural town and immediately causes trouble. A struggling father who is in danger of losing the family home to a mortgage. To save the property, the father tries to force his daughter—who already has a local sweetheart—to marry the wealthy "city chap". The comedy stems from a series of identity swaps involving the wedding veil. Two country maidens are involved; one is ignored while the other is wooed by the city stranger. The "unwilling bride" (the daughter) keeps swapping her veil with a "willing bride" to avoid the ceremony. The veil is passed back and forth several times until the city chap and the father's favored suitor are eventually outwitted.