On the Stroke of Three

Henry Egbert Xerxes' big chance as a cub reporter comes when he is assigned to track down a gang of counterfeiters which gathers regularly at the Red Dog Inn. As he leaves the office, Henry witnesses a girl being dragged into a cab -- the same girl he had seen that morning passing counterfeit money. Henry follows, but on overtaking the cab, he finds it empty. At the Red Dog Inn, he discovers that the girl is being held captive. After a series of rough and tumble adventures with the resident thugs, he and the girl escape, after which he rushes home to write up the story. When it fails to appear in print, Henry storms into the city room only to discover that the entire business was a hoax, intended to test his reporter's instincts.

Henry and Marion have a lover's quarrel and part in anger. They do not reconcile, and ten years pass without contact. Marion becomes a society girl and spends her time at parties with her friends. Henry has become very ill and wishes to see Marion one more time. He writes asking her to visit. When she recieves the note, she laughs and tosses it on the floor, but, later, on a whim, decides to take all her drunken friends with her to visit him. When they arrive, Marion finds Henry dead, clutching her portrait in his hand. She sends her friends away and falls to her knees in remorse. Mary Pickford's debut!

The film consists of a series of tightly interlinked vignettes, the most sustained of which details the story of a man and a woman who are passionately in love. Their attempts to consummate their passion are constantly thwarted, by their families, by the Church and bourgeois society in general.

Charles Abbott is implicated in the death of his friend Escobar, brother to the woman he loves.

An aging doorman, after being fired from his prestigious job at a luxurious hotel, is forced to face the scorn of his friends, neighbours and society.

Gene Romaine lives in the solitude of Tall Pine Mountain with her father, fire warden for the Stanton Lumber Company. They live alone, but her mother's grave is in the little clearing and the father has promised never to leave it. To them comes McDaniels, the logging boss, who is attracted by Jean and offers her father to discard his Indian wife for the young girl. Romaine indignantly refuses and is threatened with dismissal. Gene, knowing he cannot bear to leave his wife's grave, assents to the marriage in spite of her father's protests. Stanton, chief owner of the lumber company, maroons his worthless son in the woods, in the hope of reforming him. Gene takes care of him when he sprains his ankle, and he protects her from McDaniels and is blamed for the murder of the boss when his vengeful Indian wife stabs him in the back.

Following the death of her father, a Maine trapper, Jennie Cox moves to New York to earn her living.

Oscar Krug is looked upon with suspicion by his neighbors because of his German name. When the US is drawn into the war with Germany, he enlists and travels the seas with his wife, Alice Morse. During a submarine attack Alice is snatched from Krug's side by a German officer. Krug now lives to have his revenge, and when the opportunity presents itself, he will have it.

Neglected by her grief-stricken father, a doctor, after the tragic death of his wife, little Eileen Homer changes the wording of her father's ad for a governess to read: "Wanted, a mother." After much melodrama that’s just what she gets.

Jack Stokes is Sheriff Lamar's right-hand man. Mrs. Lamar receives a threatening letter from a gambler. He threatens to expose her past life if she does not convince the sheriff to let him gamble freely. Jack overhears the conversation. In the ensuing fight, the gambler is accidentally killed. His gang tries to lynch Jack.

A social drama set in the milieu of the arts.

At the urging of his sweetheart, Rosemary Smith, a man (William Fairbanks) leaves his soft job in the east and goes west to settle a dispute over oil lands owned by Rosemary's father. This man evicts the wrong party and later must return west in order to set things right, protecting the honor of a girl from the advances of the crooked foreman.

Political graft collector, David Power forced by the district attorney to leave New York takes cabaret singer Hebe Norse with him. Showing talent in a variety of professions, Power is eventually hired by a great steel manufacturer, Gail Rogers. He falls in love with Rogers' daughter Rosalie, and they marry happily until Rogers returns home with a new wife…. Hebe Norse. When Rogers discovers Hebe's past, the two men sever ties as does Rosalie. Vengefully Rogers tries to ruin one of Power's companies without success. Ultimately Rosalie forgives Power and they and their young daughter are reunited.

Lulu, the bishop's daughter, and Tom, the Duke of Bilgewater's nephew, are in love and want to marry. Their relatives oppose the marriage, however, because Lulu's marriage contract with a curate has been signed and Tom is engaged to his ugly cousin, Lady Mary. Lulu and Tom elope to America and look for work.

Gambler "On-the Level" Leigh (William S. Hart) is forced to leave his high rolling lifestyle to move his ailing sister Alice (Mildred Harris) to the healing climate the mountains. Financial strain compels him to resume his favored vocation. Unfortunately for Level, the dance hall girl Coralie (Alma Rubens) doesn't take rejection well and convinces the dealer to clean him out with a "cold deck". A desperate robbery ensues, leading to Level wanted for murder!