Ruling Passions

After screams from a beautiful house draw neighbors and the police, Victor Bailey is shot and wounded while leaving the premises. Investigation reveals that an unknown assailant attacked Cynthia Holmes, a blind musician, and her secretary, killing the latter. Despite Cynthia's objections, Bailey, who claims to have been investigating the scream, is arrested, convicted, and sentenced to death. To keep Cynthia's mind occupied, her friends persuade her to give a benefit recital at the house; there, she shakes hands with music critic Harry Warren, whom she instantly accuses of the murder, having recognized his touch. Warren escapes but is pursued by Detective Hayden, who tricks him into a confession. Bailey is freed and marries Cynthia, and the birth of their first child restores her sight.

Philanthropist attempts to awaken the good side in criminals.

When her husband Fred goes bankrupt, Lily Morton is forced to give up the trappings of wealth and move into a humble home while Fred attempts to fight his way back to prosperity. Resentful of her modest circumstances, Lily accepts her friend Marion Garland's offer to introduce her to Mrs. Farington, a woman who will pay handsomely for Lily's escort services. Lily goes to work for Mrs. Farington while her unsuspecting husband struggles to regain his former wealth. While managing an apartment house for one of his wealthy clients, Fred visits Mrs. Farington, a tenant, and, noticing a framed picture of Lily, asks to be introduced to the girl. Mrs. Farington arranges the rendezvous, and when Lily arrives, she is confronted by her enraged husband who chokes her to death. At this moment, Lily awakens from her nightmare, and chastened for her superficiality, begs Fred for forgiveness.

Young high school teacher Rosalie Allen rejects the love of Dr. Paul Duncan to "save" Lionel Brooks, a man down on his luck.

There is distress in the West household after young Dr. West disappears mysteriously, causing his mother to notify the police, who assign the search to Detective Rhombus. The cause of all this excitement resides in the Parker apartment on the floor above where the doctor has gone to call on his sweetheart Kitty. She is in a dither because her father has decreed that she marry Gus Woozle, the pickle king. Dr. West and Kitty are planning to elope, but when her father returns unexpectedly, Kitty hides her lover in the boudoir. Parker tells his daughter that he has sent for Alderman Smiggles to officiate at her wedding and, to prevent any deviation in his plans, locks Kitty in her bedroom. Soon after, the detective arrives and arrests both Woozle and Parker for the doctor's disappearance. In their absence, Alderman Smiggles arrives and marries Kitty to the doctor.

The film is about a young Jewish student who has to work as a prostitute in order to maintain residence in Riga. This leads to a misunderstanding with tragic consequences.

A wealthy young society couple loses their fortune. When the husband is forced to take a job like everyone else, the wife cannot deal with the sudden downward plunge of her once-privileged life and drifts into prostitution.

A young Russian girl is forced into a life of prostitution in Czarist Russia, and she and a British journalist find their lives endangered when she reveals to him information regarding the social crimes rampant in her country.