- Episode 1: "The Jade Necklace" Dorothy Desmond, an inexperienced Kentucky girl whose father, an editor, had been shot at his desk by a political opponent, and whose mother had dropped dead of shock, found herself left virtually penniless. She believed she had a gift for writing and came to New York to seek a position on a newspaper. She was assigned to Chinatown to get an opium den story. She missed her escort and bravely and foolishly went to Chinatown alone. She yielded to the invitation of a Chinaman to enter his shop and inspect some beads, and he was at the point of attacking her when a storm of revolver shots broke, and a tong war was on. At the crack of the first pistol the Chinese shopkeeper desisted from his evil designs and shoved Dorothy into a secret room, the door of which he closed and locked on the outside. The girl was mad with fear. To her through the deadening walls came the sounds of the shooting. Then the shots ceased as suddenly as they had begun, and she heard faintly the gongs of police ambulances and patrols. Had she been liberated she would have seen white-jacketed emergency surgeons and orderlies picking up dead and wounded Chinamen and putting them into the wagons, while blue-coated officers with busy clubs rounded up other Chinamen, dragging them from all sorts of odd holes and corners and packing them into patrol wagons. "Worst tong fight in years," a sergeant observed pleasantly to a newspaper man. "Seven dead already, and some of the wounded sure to die. These Chinks shoot mighty straight for heathen. In the dark, too. What always puzzled me was how one tong could spot the other tong when they get mixed up in one of these nasty little wars. All Chinks look pretty much alike to me. You can never find out what started one of those shooting festivals. They won't tell a white man a thing. We can take our fill of guessing, though. Maybe it was a woman taken away from a member of one tong by a member of another. Maybe it was opium, maybe, you can think up a whole lot of maybes if you try, but what's the use"?—Moving Picture World synopsis
- Episode 2: "The Black Door" Isabel Ralston, a young newspaper reporter, is sent by the order of her managing editor into the middle of a mystery that recalls Poe's "Murders of the Rue Morgue." Cynthia is the niece of an old lady, Harriet Kennedy, wealth and the imminence of her departure from this mundane sphere, have inspired her relatives with greed and caused them to conspire so that her demise may be hastened. But Cynthia is more than that. She is of the "criminal type." Miss Ralston falls under the evil sway of Cynthia and her band of harpies who have installed themselves in old Miss Kennedy's home, because, having befriended the old woman once, she has been sent for by the latter in her extremity. Jonas Slaughter is a lawyer and a sort of relative of old Miss Kennedy. He is also an occupant of the house. Slaughter and Cynthia, together with the dissolute nephew of Miss Kennedy, plot to kill the old lady and to throw the blame on Miss Ralston and John Farrar. Miss Ralston's law office fiancé, who has accompanied her at her request and who is stormbound as she is in the house of "The Black Door." James Kennedy, the nephew, who is egged on by Cynthia to garrote his aunt in her bed, and who is nerved to the deed by the administration of cocaine, is recognized by Miss Ralston, who has been kept awake by the storm, and brought to book by her for the crime, after she herself has been accused. The unmasking of the real murderer, James Kennedy, is skillfully handled. The mystery of the "Black Door," is solved when it is discovered that Cynthia has been in the habit of telling most industriously a story, which is based on an old southern superstition, that the front door of a house occupied for more than a century turned black when any member of the family died, and that it was she who blackened the door with a big brush in order to impress on the minds of simple folk that the death of Miss Kennedy had been wrought by some mysterious agency.—Moving Picture World synopsis
- Episode 3: "Ace High" Jessie Forsythe, a girl reporter, is instructed to visit dance balls on the East Side of New York to get color for a series of stories. To gain the favor of "Dago Mike," a saloonkeeper and politician, she takes the place of a cabaret dancer, who has fallen ill, and soon becomes a favorite. Her society is sought by McTeague, the ward boss. John Dillon, a poolroom keeper, does not believe that Jessie is really a cabaret performer, but that she has been inveigled into the life by spurious means, determines to rescue her. Dago Mike in attempting to frighten Dillon away from the girl, starts a fight in which he is badly worsted by Dillon, who is set upon by a gang of McTeague's gunmen. A fierce fight ensues, in which Jessie seizes a weapon and defends Dillon when his life is endangered. As a result of her experiences she uncovers a sensational story of the inside facts of a conspiracy which have long baffled the newspapers.—Moving Picture World synopsis
- Episode 6: "A Long Lane" Hope Brandon, reporter for a New York newspaper, is assigned to dig up facts with reference to Count Stratom's meddling in affairs of the American government. Through her fiancé, Lieut. Strong, of the Navy, she makes the acquaintance of the Count, who has no suspicion of her mission. She finds that Strong has been betrayed into the hands of the Count, by one of his clerks; the Count also secures important code information by drugging Strong in his office. Hope witnesses this, and succeeds in defeating the Count's plans, and securing possession of papers necessary to convict the Count; and at the same time recovers the documents stolen from her lover.—Moving Picture World synopsis
- Episode 7: "The Smite of Conscience" When Helen Girard learns of her husband's mode of life she refuses to accept support from him. Girard is a drunken and worthless specimen of the wealthy criminal class. She lives in his home, however, in order to conserve her family reputation, but supports herself by writing articles for a morning newspaper. She is assigned by the editor to study the sociological aspects of the New York night courts, and in the execution of her duty is brought many times in the company of Exton Manley, a lawyer. In an altercation with her husband, Helen struggles with him for the possession of a revolver with which he has declared his intention of killing her. She is knocked unconscious, and when she regains her senses she sees her husband lying on the floor, dead, with the discharged pistol beside him. James Hale, the butler, who had sworn vengeance on his employer, is arrested for the crime and prosecuted by Manley to a conviction and sentence of death. Only after the man's sentence does Manley realize the full enormity of his action, he having been convinced from the beginning that the woman he loves had fired the shot which killed Girard in order to save her own life. When she failed to confess to him he believed that she had killed with intent, but his affection for the supposed slayer forced him to protect her at another's expense. Manley goes through tremendous mental torture during the days that precedes the date of Hale's execution. Helen notices the peculiar attitude of Manley, but she does not suspect that he believes her guilty. Just as Father Burke has finished administering the last rites to the condemned butler, he receives a complete confession from him to the effect that it was he who had killed Girard.—Moving Picture World synopsis
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