Radha is an English girl who was abandoned in India by her father as a baby. Unaware of her true parentage, she meets a British Army officer, Captain Richard Townsend, and falls in love with the handsome soldier. A bloody revolution erupts in India, and the badly wounded Townsend is sent home to recover. Radha, left homeless after the uprising, discovers her true identity and sets off for England to reclaim her birthright.
Released at the height of Mary Pickford's popularity, Less Than the Dust was the first production from the Artcraft Pictures Corporation, a company founded specifically to distribute Pickford's films. Known as "America's Sweetheart", the actress had shot to fame seven years earlier after being discovered at age 17 by film pioneer D.W. Griffith. Director John Emerson also began his career with Griffith, as an associate on the epic Intolerance (1916). He directed several comedies starring Pickford's future husband, Douglas Fairbanks, including His Picture in the Papers (1916) and Wild and Wooly (1917). The assistant director on Less Than the Dust was the legendary Erich von Stroheim.