Pearl Shepard

Movie serial directed by George B. Seitz.

Unable to support her second child, a boy, Alice Baldwin gives him up to the wife of Edward Stevens, a wealthy manufacturer. Her other child, a daughter, grows up, marries, and selfishly neglects her mother. Twenty years pass, and Alice's son, Edward, Jr., wins a place in the Stevens piano factory and falls in love with Julia Brennon, the owner's daughter. Meanwhile, the mother leaves home when her son-in-law objects to her presence, and she is rescued from a suicide attempt by Edward and Julia. At his foster father's home he realizes her identity, and at last they find happiness together.

After Jim Barston is mysteriously killed in Australia, his wife, Helen, lays claim to the estate of Gerald Mortimer Barston in England, asserting that her husband was the missing son and heir. In reality, Jim was the cousin of the true heir, who is also named Jim Barston. Despite having no legal proof, Helen convinces the trustees to accept her claim and is installed as mistress of the manor. Jim Barston appears and proves his identity, although Helen initially believes him to be an impostor.

After becoming a Supreme Court justice, Peter Graham is visited by Olive Martin, a singer from New Orleans, Louisiana, with whom he had an affair in his youth. Although Peter has been sending money to maintain Olive's silence and to support their son, she now sees an opportunity to join high society, and demands that Peter divorce his wife to marry her. Meanwhile, in Boston, Massachusetts, Olive's son, Harold, becomes engaged to Peter's daughter, Anita, but the young lovers are soon devastated by the news that they were both sired by the same man. Olive's dissolute brother-in-law, Thomas Donald, finds Peter on the brink of suicide and reveals that he is Harold's father. Thomas goes on to explain that Olive adopted the boy as a means to blackmail Peter. Harold and Anita marry, while Peter confesses to his wife and Olive leaves town.