Vanity Pool

Ezra Hickman, of Kankakee, is a political aspirant. At a reception in Washington with his wife and daughter Amy he meets the Ambassador of Selim Bey, the ruler of a small European kingdom, Vergania. The Ambassador, seeking an American girl for his ruler, paints a glowing picture of Vergania to Hickman's wife, with the result that she persuades her husband to accept the American Consulate at. Vergania. Amy, the daughter, is enamored of Lieutenant Brice of the U.S. Navy, and reluctantly she agrees to leave him and go with her family.

When Donald Bayne, known in the North as The Wolf, loses his cabin to Steve Nolan in a backwoods court, he threatens and thrashes the new owner, then leaves him to tend to his traps. Upon his return, he discovers that Nolan has been killed in a shooting accident and that Bess Nolan, his niece, has moved into the cabin with Rose, her sister's child. Unable to evict her, The Wolf camps out next to the cabin, but soon realizes that this act has compromised her honor in the town. To correct the situation, he forces her into marriage, but she maintains a safe distance from him. When Bess's sister and "Snaky" Burns, her brother-in-law, kidnap Rose for use in their criminal activities, Bess implores Donald to intervene.

Robert "Bob" Wesley horrifies his father, Admiral John Wesley of the Naval Advisory Board, by failing his examination at the Annapolis naval academy. Bob seizes the chance to redeem himself, however, when he overhears Hanson, the butler, plotting with German agent Count Von Ornstorff to deliver his father's plans for the Atlantic coastal defenses to German Baroness Von Hulda. In Baltimore, Bob meets the baroness' ship and, with the aid of an old college professor, makes her his prisoner. Having impersonated a woman in the college play, Bob disguises himself as the baroness, rendezvous with the spies, and obtains the plans.

Dick Evans is the corrupt boss of a rough-and-tumble munitions town called Powderville. He hires his friend, Jack Ripley, to establish a newspaper, intending merely to further his own financial ambitions; however, Jack envisions The Trumpet as an instrument of good and soon persuades Dick to clean up Powderville.

James Brieson, a wealthy stockbroker, ruins Hutch Valiant, who soon after dies of the shock. Valiant's son Steele returns from the Northwest, where he won his fortune, just before his father's death and decides to devote his life to the cause of revenge.

"Wild Cat" Betsey Dawley, whose father, "Handsome Harry," was disowned by the proud Dawley family of Greenburgh, Kentucky, meets and thoroughly charms her snobbish cousin Virginia's fiancé, John Davidson, at a picnic. At the start of the Civil War, John becomes a Union officer, while Betsey and her father staunchly defend the South. When Confederate Colonel Morgan, the leader of the intrepid band known as "Morgan's Men," commissions a young horseman to deliver an important message to the Dawley mansion, the rider is shot and Betsey takes his place, breaking through the lines and successfully accomplishing the mission.

The mysterious "K" takes a humble job and falls in love with his landlady's daughter, Sidney Page. Sidney discourages her boyish admirer, Joe Drummond, and seeks training as a nurse. Infatuated with the head surgeon, Dr. Max Wilson, she accepts his proposal, which infuriates nurse Carlotta, who also loves Max. Carlotta lures Max to a roadhouse, where Joe, mistaking her for Sidney, shoots Max. K appears and, assuming his true identity as the famous Dr. Edwards, saves Max's life by performing his "Edwards operation."

Lois Fox, upon whose shoulder is branded a Chinese idiograph resembling the letters "A. Y.," is rescued from a gang of Chinese ruffians by Brice Ferris. His servant Ming, in attempting to steal from her finger a ring that bears a mysterious green seal, is killed, and soon afterward a stranger named Strang arrives, also in search of the girl. Despite Brice's efforts to protect her, Lois is abducted and taken to the headquarters of Lao Wing, the leader of a secret Chinese society known as the Tong.

Rosarita, a young relative of the powerful Doña Perfecta in the small Spanish village of Orbajosa, has been betrothed since infancy to her cousin, Pepe Rey Don Jose, although the two have never met. When Pepe comes to visit Rosarita, she immediately falls in love with him, but his offhand remark about the lack of enterprise in the small town alienates Doña Perfecta, and the old woman becomes determined to prevent the marriage.

The TARDIS crew lands in the Himalayas of Cathay in 1289, their ship badly damaged, and are picked up by Marco Polo's caravan on its way along the fabled Silk Road to see the Emperor Kublai Khan. The story concerns the Doctor and his companions' attempts to thwart the machinations of Tegana, who attempts to sabotage the caravan along its travels through the Pamir Plateau and across the treacherous Gobi Desert, and ultimately to assassinate Kublai Khan in Peking, at the height of his imperial power.

Roscoe Tracy, the foreman of a large mining camp, is unjustly sentenced to life in prison for robbery and murder. In his absence, his little daughter Joan is raised by mine superintendent Robert Carter. Many years after her father's conviction, Joan receives an anonymous note advising her to examine the contents of a chest that is stored in a certain warehouse. Carter, alarmed by this development, tries to secure the trunk himself, but not before it is purchased at an auction by Jim Younger and his friends. Joan, who loves Jim, informs the young man of the chest's value, and when Carter and his men steal the box, Jim pursues them and retrieves it.

Before he can avenge a crooked card game, Dan Carrington suffers heart failure and dies in his chair. John Tralee, the cheater, feels a pang of guilt when he discovers that he has taken all of Carrington's money and adopts the dead man's little girl, Lois. The girl grows up and the gambling hall becomes her second home.

During World War I, John Bowman, the captain of a tramp steamer, refuses to allow his wife and daughter Shirley to accompany him on a long voyage because he fears that the ship may be torpedoed. Before his departure, he entrusts his life insurance policy to shipping agent Sam Bullard, who, unknown to John, once courted Mrs. Bowman. Shirley, a clairvoyant, has a vision in which her father's ship is torpedoed, and the next day, Sam reports that the ship has been sunk and John killed.

Upon seeing millionaire Lee Brooks's picture in the paper, Julie Le Fabrier, a romantic young model in Madame Swan's dress shop, immediately falls in love with him. Soon afterwards, Julie is sent to the Grand Tides Hotel to deliver a dress to Madame Ricardo, an attractive young woman whose bills are paid by Lee's lovestruck father, Mason Brooks. Having seen her husband, whom she believed to be in South America, on the grounds, Madame Ricardo deserts the hotel, so Julie dons the gown and masquerades as Mason's mistress.

Angela, a lovely young woman of eighteen, lives with her grandmother in Virginia but knows very little about her mother, Lady Eldone, who after the death of Angela's father, moved to Europe and married an English army captain. When Captain Eldone is reported dead, Lady Eldone returns to the United States determined to marry a wealthy man.