Grace Stevens

Madge Kennedy stars as a young woman of modest means, posing as a millionairess in order to attend a hoity-toity society ball, where she hopes to snare a rich husband. Here she meets handsome young Tom Moore, who is likewise impersonating a man of wealth.

Dick Carlysle returns home to find that his mother has married Brute Kettle who is really out to get the Carlysle ranch. First Kettle gets Bennett to forge a letter saying Dick relinquishes his inheritance in the ranch and then he tries to get Dick's mother to relinquish hers.

A masked girl sits in a store window in New York, writing cards to demonstrate a fountain pen. Everybody is curious about her because she is so pretty, and she becomes nicknamed "the Angel in the Mask." A certain boy from the country, Bob Singleton, chances to pass the window. He is forlorn because he cannot get work. The masked girl holds up a card, on which is written a word of friendly encouragement. At the boarding-house where the boy is staying a robbery and murder are committed, incriminating evidence is found in Singleton's room, and he is taken to prison.

Joyce's mother keeps her younger daughter in the background so that Polly, the elder daughter, can monopolize all the eligible young men, especially Tom. Although Tom is Polly's choice, she decides to pique his interest by flirting with Harry. Joyce, who likes Tom herself, decides to defeat her sister's plan by having Tom pretend that he likes her. Soon, the pretense turns to love and Tom proposes to Joyce. To test his sincerity, Joyce jumps into shark-infested waters and almost loses her life. Tom visits her constantly in the hospital and finds that his operation on her heart was quite successful.

Lillian Travers, a New York heiress, pops down to Florida to surprise her fiancé, Fred Cassadene, the house doctor at a prominent Saint Augustine hotel. The surprise, however, is Lillian's when she finds Fred in a series of compromising situations with a certain wealthy widow staying there. When she can take no more, Lillian discovers a box forgotten at an old curiosity shop in which lies a hundred-year-old secret: a vial of four rare and exotic African seeds that promises to transform whoever swallows one from a woman to a man or vice versa.

The Thanhouser Co. has reissued a number of its surviving films on video. FIRES OF YOUTH existed at around 52 minutes in its original release. A shortened version running just over 31 minutes has survived at the George Eastman House and has now been released by Thanhouser. Jeanne Eagels does well as the neglected young daughter in a factory town. She appears in 22 scenes and delivers a sensitive performance.