Tse Chan (Sessue Hayakawa), a Chinese viceroy, believing his wife (Ann May) to be unfaithful, sentences her to death. After learning of her innocence too late, he sends his son, Li Chan ( Sessue Hayakawa ), to America and goes into seclusion. Li Chan returns to the fatherland as a successful engineer and falls in love with Hyacinth ( Bessie Love ), daughter of a poor basket-weaver. She is kidnapped by the viceroy, and thinking she has deserted him, Li Chan goes to the city and becomes famous as a teacher. Engaged to give private lessons to the niece of Ho Ling (Thomas Jefferson), he soon learns that his pupil is none other than Hyacinth, and he plans an escape for her. They seek refuge in the caverns of "The Sleeping Dragon," an active volcano, but overcome by fumes, they are forced to surrender and are sentenced to the torture of Ling Chee by the lifting of the "Vermilion Pencil." During an eruption of the volcano, the lovers escape and flee from the city.

This 1922 silent drama was based from 1908 novel The Vermilion Pencil by Homer Lea, produced by the Robertson-Cole Pictures Corporation, starring Sessue Hayakawa and Bessie Love. It is now considered to be lost.