Sally Crute

Episodic tale of a woman who quarrels with her husband over her obsession with buying clothes. After the argument she falls asleep, and a series of related dreams revolves around the dress and a sable wrap she bought that started the argument, showing her snippets of the lives of the various people involved in the making of the dress and the fur.

Perry Bascom comes to the town of Rising Sun, Indiana, to take charge of the sawmills which have for years been managed by his father's best friend, Col. Henry Clay Risener. His father's half-brother, Jack, has brought the name into disrepute in the town, so he (Perry) decides to be known as Jim Nelson. Perry sees June, who has been sent away from the poorhouse. He shares his lunch with her and protects her from the attentions of Ben Boone, the political bully of the town.

Feodor Turov, chief of the Russian Czar's secret police, orders his Cossacks to attack a village he believes to be infested with rebels. The Cossacks attack the village and massacre almost everyone, and the young Katerina is whipped to death. Before escaping to England, her sister Darya swears to avenge her sister's death. Years later--now one of the world's most famous prima ballerinas--she returns to Russia. Turov falls in love with her and manages to secure a meeting.

The police are on the lookout for Jim Spike, alias Jim Nail, a dangerous highway robber, who has been working with more or less success without being apprehended. The chief of the detective bureau puts two new detectives on the case and enjoins them to be very careful in their investigations, and not to come back without landing the prisoner. The three detectives soon come upon Edgar Carroll, in whom they immediately see a striking resemblance to Spike, the crook.

Small-town girl Mary Barry wins a beauty contest and goes to New York to meet D. V. Cortelyou, the magazine's publisher. Greatly taken by young girl, Cortelyou arranges for her to live with Dolly Griffith, a woman of questionable reputation who often aids him in his wicked schemes of blackmail and seduction. During a party seemingly in Mary's honor, Cortelyou obtains some apparently compromising evidence with which to blackmail Mrs. Young, the wife of a wealthy broker.