The Picture Idol

About Omar Khayyam of Persia, the poet and mathematician, who wrote the Iranian first solar calendar circa A.D. 1073. His fiancé was forced to marry the shah, but she eventually escaped and, with help of grand Vazir, joined Omar Khayyam. Hollywood made a film based on the same story with Connell Wilde, the life and adventures of Omar Khayyam.

American surveyor William MacDonald visits an Ojibway village in the Canadian Northwest. He seduces a local half-breed girl named Annette while her fiancé Baptiste and half-brother Jules are away trapping. MacDonald then abandons her. When Annette realizes she is pregnant, she wanders into the forest while delirious and is killed by wolves. Jules and Baptiste seek revenge. They track MacDonald to the cabin of a cruel Scotsman, Andrew MacTavish, whose daughter Hilda is loved by Jules. MacDonald tries to convince MacTavish to let him take Hilda to America. Hilda falls in love with Jules instead. When Hilda, Jules, and Baptiste try to escape in a canoe, MacDonald follows them. Jules fights MacDonald in a duel with guns and knives, killing MacDonald before leaving for Montreal with Hilda.

Stereotypical Jewish man Isadore Solomon (Dore Davidson) arrives with his daughter Essie (Virginia Brown Faire) in a small, predominantly-Christian New England town. The discriminating viewpoints of the populace, including the Mayor, drive them to try to get rid of the newcomers. Solomon is persuaded by Clem (William V. Mong) to invest in an electric-light plant. The town is brought prosperity and the Solomons' former adversaries honor him.

The daughter of straitlaced parents, Bessie Bowden is attracted to the social life of the fast set and finds Austin Trull, lounge lizard and sometime artist, more interesting than hard-working John Hargraves. Mr. Bowden and John try to compete with Bessie's new friends and spend all the family savings on making the Bowden home appear wealthy and a part of the social whirl. Bessie and Geraldine Horton finally catch Trull at his double-dealing, and Bessie wisely returns to home and Hargraves.

A British engineer in India takes a simple native girl as his bride, an act which defies social strictures and leads to tragedy.

During World War I, young Dorothy Grant comes home from finishing school and informs her parents that she is going to contribute to the war effort by organizing a "Girls Aviation Corps". She has uniforms made and hires a veteran of the Spanish-American War to teach her "cadets" military routines and drills. Her father owns a munitions factory and is always telling her to be on the lookout for spies. She convinces herself that the family butler, Williams, is a spy because he cuts his grapefruit in an odd way. It turns out that Williams isn't a spy but the people whom Dorothy least suspects are in fact spies, and they discover that Dorothy knows the password to get into the factory after hours.

John Loder looks exactly like his cousin, John Chilcote, who is a member of Parliament. Because of his dissolute ways, Chilcote collapses, and Loder is called in to take his place so that the family honor can remain unsullied. Loder's masquerade is so successful that no one suspects him of being an impostor, not even Chilcote's estranged wife, Eve. Loder distinguishes himself with his actions, both in public and private, while the real Chilcote sinks further into the gutter until he finally dies. Loder decides to remain as John Chilcote, and marries Eve, who, up until Loder reveals his true identity, has believed she was falling in love with her husband all over again.

Nancy Bradshaw (Katherine MacDonald) is a popular stage star who quits her career to marry millionaire clubman Dick Cunningham (Charles Richman). But after a few years of marriage, he starts seeing other women. Figuring that her public was more faithful to her than her husband, Nancy returns to the stage.

Compelled to leave England to escape the notoriety following her involvement in a divorce scandal, Gaenor Lisle meets and falls in love with Peter Garstin. They are wed, Peter knowing nothing of the scandal in which his wife was involved. In Paris, Peter encounters a friend who mentions the affair, but when Peter confronts Gaenor with the accusations, she refuses to defend herself and runs away to England. While crossing the channel, Gaenor encounters Craven, the man who permitted her to be unjustly named as correspondent in his divorce suit.

After quarreling with his stepfather, John Ashton runs away to London. At the same time, Lord John Hertford marries Lady Mercy Covington, but he disappears on the wedding night. Ashton is injured in a traffic accident in London, and is believed to be Hertford, even by Lady Mercy.

Using hypnosis and two agents, Jerry manages to get rid of his mother in law.

Dr. Muller, a friend to all, finds pleasure in turning the goodness in people to evil ends. He meets Marie Matin and her fiancée, Georges Roben, while viewing a new painting, "The Martyr--Truth Crucified by Evil." Marie declares that the picture was wrong--evil could never triumph over truth--and though Muller says he agrees with her, he plots to prove otherwise.

A kindly but desperate Alsatian innkeeper named Mathias murders and robs a rich Jewish merchant staying at his inn, but the ghost of his victim will not let him rest. Meanwhile, a mysterious Mesmerist has come to town, claiming he has made many criminals confess their crimes...

After meeting a handsome writer, Senator Carter's daughter leaves home and enters the employ of the Vitagraph Company as an actress. After waiting wistfully for her return, Senator Carter passes a theatre one day and sees his daughter featured in one the "Movies". He goes to the studio and after being shown through the plant he finds his daughter and reconciliation takes place. Besides being an interesting drama, the picture shows in detail the entire plant of the Vitagraph Company.

The story of how Lady Godiva came to ride naked through the streets of Coventry.

When she goes to tell her husband Hubert that she is expecting a child, Caroline Knollys finds him in the arms of another woman. Caroline leaves him and, not telling him of her pregnancy, runs off to Europe where she has her child and becomes the toast of European society. Then she returns to settle with her husband once and for all.