Removed from an orphanage, Nance Olden is taken to live at Mother Hogan's boarding-house for crooks. There she becomes Tom Morgan's partner, helping him steal a jewel from Edward Ramsey at Union Station.
Pansy O'Donnell, a salesgirl, is given a two-week vacation at a summer resort, where she advertises clothing made by her company. The hotel clerk mistakes her for movie actress Marie La Tour, and gossip spreads that she is staying incognito.
Pauline Hathaway is informed on her 18th birthday by the family lawyer that she will inherit half a million dollars, provided that her behavior meets with his approval; otherwise, the money will revert to her aunt. With new clothes Pauline sets out to visit her mother's friend, Mrs. Brewster. Framed en route by a pickpocket, she is sentenced to a reformatory for 30 days. In court, however, she has been seen by Bruce Reynolds, an amateur investigator and nephew of Mrs. Brewster who is convinced of her innocence.
Strong-willed Kathleen O'Hara, believes in equality of sexes, makes a pact with her sweetheart, Jim Donahue, when they become joint owners of a California gold mine. According to the agreement, Donahue will do the housekeeping while Kathleen runs the mine; the first to call for help loses his share of the mine.
Izzy Murphy is a street vendor of scents that falls in love with the beautiful woman (Audrey Ferris) whose picture adorns the perfume bottle he sells. After resourcefully tracing the beauty (whose father(Warner Oland) manufactures the perfume to a luxury yacht, he finds himself in the company of an escaped lunatic John Miljan) who has vowed to murder the perfume manufacturer in retaliation for all the flowers that have been lost in the making of the perfume.
After the divorce of Schuyler Rutherford from his rich wife Caroline, who was his meal ticket, Schuyler's sister Kathleen is so humiliated by the fact that her penniless condition was brought to light during the court proceedings that she seeks solace in her friend, sculptress Mary Carter. Mary offers her friend a job as her secretary and, while working, she becomes acquainted with Mary's wealthy cousin Robert Winston when she overhears him denouncing parasitic girls like Kathleen. Vowing revenge, Kathleen assumes a false name and obtains a position as Robert's secretary, determined to make him fall in love with her.
When a wealthy young lady loses her inheritance, she decides to apply for work in disguise. In prim and proper working girl attire she becomes the respectable companion of a woman looking to reform her wayward nephew.
Lorenzo Carilo selects more-or-less menial jobs at which to make a living, other more "select" jobs not paying enough, and then he meets and falls in love with Vivian Forrester the daughter of a new-rich family. What's a poor boy to do? He might pose as a French Duke.
Four heirs to a family fortune are summoned to appear at the family estate for the reading of the will, where they meet the estate's staff, which includes a nurse, a crazed doctor, and a sinister handyman.
Sonny Boy's parents are in the midst of a bitter divorce when the boy's mother talks her sister into kidnapping him because she is terrified that her husband will take the boy out of the country after the divorce.
When the painter Christopher Bean dies, some unscrupulous art dealers try to get several of his paintings cheaply from a family who have no idea of their value.
Wandering minstrel Louis d’Angelo must flee his homeland to America after a duel over the hand of his beloved, Delicia. Finding hardship and deceit at first, he eventually also finds success. Because another suitor, Colonel Navarro, has been intercepting his letters Delicia fears Louis has forsaken her and journeys to America to discover the truth followed by her parents and Navarro. By chance all gather at the same restaurant and the lovers are reunited.
Perla Quaranta, a half-starved "daughter of Little Italy," is given the place in Carlo Bruni's "Butterfly Act" that is vacated by a chorus girl who has become overweight. Although Perla becomes friendly with Krug, the wire-man, she rejects him as a suitor, and in revenge Krug causes Perla's wire to break.
Fernie Schmidt (Colleen Moore) lives with her parents in the rear of their delicatessen. The smells of the business - cheeses, sausages, garlic and pickled herrings - repulses Fernie, who dreams of leaving this environment and moving into a life that's more rarified. Her father, Pop Schmidt (Jean Hersholt) has plans for his daughter to marry Peter Halitovsky (Arthur Stone), a sausage salesman, but Fernie is repulsed by the idea. At a dance, Fernie meets Jack Dugan (Malcolm McGregor), who tells her that he is in stocks, a paper-counter, and she falls for him. Because of her rejection of her father's chosen candidate for matrimony, Pop puts Fernie out of the house.
Serious university co-ed Alice Smith, is wholly engrossed, it would appear, in chasing butterflies and rare insects under the guidance of her friend, Mr. Spangle, Ph. D., though she secretly yearns to be an athlete and thus win the admiration of Jerry Marvin, a popular schoolmate. She takes up swimming, making herself the campus joke because of her ideas on the subject.
Brick Hubbard, a "printer's devil", convinces his friend Sid Fletcher to invest in "The Gazette", a local newspaper. Sid pens an editorial that infuriates Ira Gates, a local banker and a power in the town--and who also happens to be the father of Vivian Gates, whom Sidney is in love with. To complicate matters, the bank is robbed and Sidney is suspected of the crime.
Irene, a young girl from a small town, arrives in New York City determined to make it on the Broadway stage. She meets up with Cookie, a worldly chorus girl who takes Irene under her wing. When Irene falls for young Ronald, his rival Crane sets out to break up the pair so he can have Irene for his own--and he doesn't much care how he does it.
Austin Starfield has his greedy eye on a steel mill belonging to Eve Burnside. He persuades an impoverished count, Leon Molnar to marry Eve so he can then gain control of her fortune.
A jazz-mad Nancy Burrard is a young matron easing her boredom by flirting with married men.
Luke attempts to sell books to a businessman and his wife.