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The Black Circle Synopsis

Andrew MacTavish Ferguson and Lucy Baird, reporters for a New York newspaper, trade assignments. Both are fired when Lucy's article, written by Andy, criticizes the political party backing the paper. They go to her home, the Southern town of Bradford, where her father Daniel, about to run for sheriff, hires them to edit his newspaper. When they expose a gang of liquor smugglers, the mysterious Black Riders, already responsible for the deaths of two reformers, send Daniel and Andrew notes with black circles drawn on them, symbolizing death. Although Daniel's home and office are ransacked and his character is attacked, he wins the election, then arrests the gang after they capture Andy. Among the gang is the previous sheriff, Jacob Ackerman, who accuses prosecuting attorney Philip Parker of being the real leader. This is confirmed when Andy's visiting Aunt Janet recognizes Parker as the ex-president of a swindling mining company. Later, she advises Andy to marry Lucy, which he does.

The Secret Sin Synopsis

To help their unemployed father make ends meet, Edith and her twin sister Grace work as seamstresses . An invalid, Grace falls prey to the temptations of Chinatown opium and becomes an addict, a condition worsened by a misguided physician who prescribes morphine to ease her pain. When their father strikes oil, the family enjoys a new prosperity and the sisters meet the eligible Jack Herron, a fellow oil prospector. To Grace's shock, Jack falls in love with Edith and in her jealousy, Grace tells Jack that Edith, not she, has a drug problem. Hinting that her sister will soon need more morphine, Grace arranges for a dinner in Chinatown with the couple. While her sister and Jack dance, Grace slips away to an opium den. Edith follows her, but ends up in the wrong den and is arrested in an ensuing drug raid. After he bails her out of jail, Edith takes an angry Jack to search for Grace and stumbles across her half-conscious body lying in the street. The truth about the sisters is revealed, and after sending Grace to a sanitarium in the country, Jack and Edith are married.