Cecil B. DeMille Collection

A group of gypsy smugglers is frustrated that their attempts to bring contraband into the city are hindered by Don José, an incorruptible officer in the Civil Guard. In order to help her kinsmen, the sultry Carmen seduces him, persuading him to abandon his post and look the other way. When his infatuation leads him to kill a fellow guardsman in order to prevent her arrest, he becomes a wanted fugitive. The capricious, fickle Carmen resents his possessiveness and leaves him for a famous toreador in Seville. Obsessed and frustrated, a distraught Don José follows her to the bullring... with tragic consequences.

Disgusted by the unattractive, slovenly appearance of his wife, Sophy, Charles Murdock goes on a long hunting trip. He meets Juliet Raeburn, becomes infatuated with her, and while confessing his love, he reveals that he is a married man. Upon his return, his wife slides into a fit of jealousy. In order to clear his head, Charles goes out with his business partner Tom Berkeley and meets Viola Hastings, Tom's girlfriend. Viola shoots Berkeley when she finds him in another woman's bedroom... and Juliet Raeburn's name is connected to the controversy.

Richard Hardy, a hardworking stockbroker, labors overtime to keep up with the ruinous bills incurred by his beautiful but irresponsible wife Edith, a venal, spoiled socialite who is impervious to his pleas for fiscal restraint. Acting on what she believes to be insider information, she impulsively embezzles $10,000 from the Red Cross charity that she chairs. When she discovers that the money has been lost, Edith desperately turns to a Japanese ivory trader with whom she has been thoughtlessly flirting, and persuades him to replace the money in exchange for an assignation.

John Tremble, a cashier in a contracting concern, succumbs to temptation and steals $1000 from his employer. He runs away to an isolated island where he becomes a bit of human driftwood as he begins to fear detection. While fishing, he finds the body of a dead man, and, listening to the voice of evil, he exchanges clothes with and then mutilates the head of the corpse. The discovery of the body is reported to his family, and John's able to begin life anew. The police continue to search for the murderer, and Tremble is finally brought to trial. Meanwhile, Jane Tremble, John's former wife, has become the wife of the governor and does not recognize John Tremble when she sees him in court. After a dramatic trial, John Tremble is found guilty of his own murder and nobly decides to meet death in the electric chair over risking the newfound happiness of his former wife.

Lydia Thorne, a wealthy girl who loves speed and thrills, is unsympathetic when Evans, her maid, is jailed for stealing her jewels. District Attorney Daniel O'Bannon visits Lydia to make her see the error of her own ways, but instead witnesses scene of Lydia and her friends that evokes a Roman orgy. O'Bannon feels it is his duty to send Lydia to jail, for her own good, when her driving causes the death of a motorcycle policeman. Lydia is resentful, and her rebuff of O'Bannon, who has come to love her, causes him such remorse that he turns to drink and dissipation. Meanwhile, Lydia reforms, realizes she loves O'Bannon, and resolves to do charitable work. She and Evans open a soup kitchen after their release, and a chance meeting with O'Bannon starts him on the road to recovery.