Peggy Cartwright

Two families, abolitionist Northerners the Stonemans and Southern landowners the Camerons, intertwine. When Confederate colonel Ben Cameron is captured in battle, nurse Elsie Stoneman petitions for his pardon. In Reconstruction-era South Carolina, Cameron founds the Ku Klux Klan, battling Elsie's congressman father and his African-American protégé, Silas Lynch.

The story of a poor young woman, separated by prejudice from her husband and baby, is interwoven with tales of intolerance from throughout history.

Brandon, a surveyor, dreams of building a railway to the west. He sets off with his son, Davy, to survey a route. They discover a new pass which will shave 200 miles off the expected distance, but they are set upon by a party of Cheyenne. One of them, a white renegade with only two fingers on his right hand, kills Brandon and scalps him. Davy is all alone now.

A Lancashire mill girl has an illicit adventure with the owner's son while on holiday. Based on the once notorious Houghton play.

Clorinda Wildairs breaks off an affair with the unscrupulous Sir John Ozen to become engaged to a rich nobleman, Mertoun, the Duke of Osmonde. Clorinda accidentally kills Sir John when he, infuriated by her forthcoming marriage, threatens to blackmail her. She buries the body in the cellar and admits her act to the forgiving Osmonde before marrying him.

When Alden Van Dusen, a third-generation member of a prestigious old New York family, is faced with the alternatives of allowing his firm to go bankrupt or becoming involved in fraud, he decides on suicide. As he is about to drown himself, Alden is attacked by a thug and, in the ensuing struggle, his assailant is killed. Seizing upon the opportunity, Alden changes identities with the dead man and drifts West, where he becomes an employee in his firm's mine.

As a penniless man worries about how he will manage to eat, he is joined by a young waif and her dog, who are in the same predicament. Meanwhile, across town a dishonest lawyer is working with a gang of criminals, trying to swindle an innocent young heiress out of her inheritance. As the heiress is on her way home from the lawyer's office, she notices the young man and the waif in the midst of their latest problem with the authorities, and she rescues them. Later on, the young man will have an unexpected opportunity to repay her for her kindness.

When he loses both his father’s canning factory and his girl “Tiny” to Stephen Douglas modest Simpson Hightower goes to work in a New York provisions office along with stenographer Hope and office boy Jimmy. To impress the Danish consul who is proposing a large contract Hope and Jimmy persuade Simpson to return to his hometown posing as a successful businessman accompanied by his secretary "Pep" and valet Jimmy. It works! Simpson manages to get the Danish contract, buy his factory back and realize Tiny’s worthlessness while recognizing his love for "Pep."

The gang forms a fire department; they end up thwarting a bootlegger, but not before their pet animals get drunk on his moonshine.

Mrs. Pennington Van Renssalaer, a publicity-minded society matron, sponsors a children's outing, much to her and her chauffeur's eventual regret.

Max is an Austrian officer in the army and son of a highly placed general. His father wants him to marry a Countess but he has fallen in love with Vicki. Attending a party given in his honour, they are informed that war has broken out. Max writes a note to Vicki and goes off to war. Unfortunately the note is lost. Some time after the war, Max is just a shoe shop assistant while Vicki is now a famous singer. They meet and at first she snubs him but then falls in love with him again

A young woman, Natalie Storm works in a sweatshop and struggles to support her mother and little sister, Beatrice. Their mother dies and Beatrice suffers from poverty. Because of her circumstances, Natalie rejects the marriage proposal of Tom Chandler, a self-educated mining engineer. He then leaves for South America, where he intends to make his fortune. To save her sister and herself, Natalie becomes the mistress of a wealthy Wall Street magnate, Alvin Dunning. When he publicly humiliates her, however, she becomes determined to free herself. Meanwhile, Chandler discovers a copper mine in South America and returns. He is invited to a party at Dunning's home. When he meets Natalie as Dunning's mistress he is heartbroken and abruptly leaves. Natalie is by now desperate to get away from Dunning. She then acquires enough money from a lucky stock tip to leave him.

The Mystic J.J.J.'s challenge Ernie's bravery; he spins a tale of saving a rich young girl from kidnappers and of creating a utopia called Freetown.