Griffith Gaunt is a tale of a poor man who makes his fortune and a fine living, but has one weakness in the form of an insane jealousy. This weakness prevents him from being happy in marriage with Catharine Peyton, a Cumberland heiress, so he leaves her, finding a new romance with a lovely innkeeper Mercy. Griffith assumes the identity of his illegitimate brother, Thomas Leicester, and marries Mercy, but his passion again leads to jealousy which drives him to trials and tribulations that surpass false representation.

George Fielding is an honest young man whit no luck or fortune, who dreams of winning the hand of young Susan Merton. Her father, however, doesn't want his daughter to marry a poor farmer, so George leaves to Australia to try his luck there, keeping the contact with Susan through letters. However, a ruthless squire John Meadows becomes obsessed with Susan and sabotages George intercepting letters between lovers and conspiring to have George framed and sent to jail.

Hard Cash revolves around the sum of £14,000, of which a bankrupt banker Richard Hardie defrauds David Dodd, a sea-captain. Upon realizing his loss Dodd has a cataleptic shock and goes insane. Hardie's son Alfred, who loves Dodd's daughter Julia, detects his father's wrongdoing and confronts him about it, so Hardie puts him in a private insane asylum to keep him quiet. Trying to keep a straight mind among the insane, Alfred meets and befriends Dodd, and when a fire breaks out they manage to escape, having one thing on their mind.