Jackie's father runs a general store that is on the brink of bankruptcy. To save it, Jackie borrows $2,000 from the local millionaire, Mr. Skinner, and renovates the store into a modern haberdashery. This sparks a rivalry with J. Smythe, a fashionable ladies' milliner from Paris who opens a shop across the street. A pair of kidnappers plot to abduct Mr. Skinner's daughter, Evelina, for ransom. They overhear Evelina mention she plans to buy a specific dress displayed in Smythe's window. However, Jackie buys the dress first, leading the criminals to kidnap her by mistake. Jackie is held in a deserted house. J. Smythe, who has developed feelings for Jackie despite their business rivalry, comes to her rescue. In a comedic turn, Jackie ends up saving him from a beating by dropping heavy jugs on the kidnappers' heads from above.
Ann, a 19-year-old girl who looks much younger, meets a dashing army major on a boat sailing from Liverpool to Bombay, India, and falls in love with him. Her love appears to be unrequited, though, because the major thinks she is far too young--and also, unknown to her, because he had once been in love with her mother. When a fellow passenger on the ship takes advantage of the naive girl the major comes to her rescue, but in the process the girl finds out about the past relationship between he and her mother.
Olga Nelson, a Swedish maidservant, working at a boarding house that caters to college students, is particularly fond of one of them, wealthy Tom Gordon. When Tom receives word that his father has lost his fortune and he must quit school, he loses the remainder of his money in a poker game. Meanwhile, Olga inherits her Uncle Sven's fortune when he dies, but the will stipulates that she will receive the money only if she marries before her next birthday. She marries Gordon to get him out of debt but he spurns her affections because he thinks that she is socially inferior. They soon separate, and she goes out West where she falls into the clutches of nefarious fortune hunters who say that they will make a lady of her. Gordon returns to school and later, when she has become a "lady," they meet again. Through a misunderstanding they quarrel, but eventually Gordon realizes that she is being used by criminals and he saves her, after which they start their marriage over.
A 1919 film directed by Sidney Franklin.
Lizzie Stokes, an obscure and colorless actress, is elevated to stardom through publicity and better coaching from Daniel Hoffman, a theatrical producer. As Olga Rostova, an exotic Russian, she meets Norman Brooke, whose infatuation turns to love. Hoffman suggests that Norman could never care for Lizzie and proves his point. Heartbroken, Lizzie decides to see no more of him. On closing night, when he proposes to her in her dressing room and she refuses, Norman declares he must believe all the lurid details of her past; in desperation, she bares her true identity, only to find it is not her glamorous image but rather her real self that he loves.
Small-town photographer Joe Coleman marries Ann Harris quickly, only to find himself financially supporting her entire lazy family. After moving to New York to work and escape his burdensome in-laws, Joe must finally put his foot down when the whole family follows them.
When a secretary overhears her boss disparaging her looks, she decides to show him how wrong he is.
Clarence Brooks is a shy, timid man working for Mr. Flavell. He is love with Flavell's daughter, Nancy. Nancy is shallow and fickle, always chasing after other, less-upstanding men. Clarence enlists when World War I erupts. While Clarence is off defending his country, Nancy's mother arranges for her daughter to marry the wealthy Mr. Braille. When Braille is drafted, Nancy's mother starts arranging a rush wedding, against Nancy's wishes. Nancy claims that she and Clarence are already secretly married. When the war is over and Clarence returns home, he refuses to be a part of her charade. When Clarence declines the offer to marry Nancy for real, she must mature to win his affections back. A lost film.
A husband is addicted to the habit of going duck-hunting occasionally. Wifey suspects that his object is chasing chickens - those that walk with two feet - and so starts in pursuit. When hubby's pals get a ducking in the water, they are forced to go to a neighboring farmhouse where the farmer's daughters dress them up in feminine clothing until their own is dried. And the young bride frowns and pouts and stirs up some trouble before she finds out that the girls have a distinct place in the plot.
Ann Barton, the daughter of a once-wealthy family, is forced to clerk at the cigar counter of a village hotel, where she meets James McDonald, a breezy, handsome salesman. Ann is adopted by an aristocratic aunt, who disapproves of James's manners and breaks up Ann's relationship with him. Ann soon revenges herself on her aunt by placing both her aunt and herself in compromising positions.
Aspiring writer Cuthbert Trotman moves to the big city to find success. He becomes the protégé of Harry Travistock, a wealthy man-about-town who takes Cuthbert under his wing to show him the "ways of the city". When Harry’s girlfriend, Anita Graham, begins to find herself more charmed by the naive and earnest Cuthbert than by Harry romantic complications and comedic misunderstandings ensue as Cuthbert navigates his burgeoning career and this unexpected love triangle.
Tony and Freddie, who have been rivals all their lives, vie for the hand in marriage of their childhood sweetheart. Big Freddie has the upper hand when Tony gets himself kidnapped by a ring of muggers whose M.O. is to have one of their members dress up as a woman to lure men into the back seat of their limousine, where they are beaten up and robbed.
A girl known as "Boots," who keeps house for a band of crooks led by her kind guardian, Uncle Ben, called "The Lion," demands that she be allowed to accompany them on a burglary. Dressed in boy's clothes, Boots is caught by Mrs. Kathryn Sylvester, a rich society widow, who, upon learning that Boots is a girl, resolves to avenge herself on James Graham, who refused to marry her stating that he wanted no stain on his lineage.
When cowboy Nick McCredie notices in a second-hand book an inscription to "Emily, the prettiest girl in school," he writes to her and learns that she is a lonely Eastern farm girl living with her grandmother. Instead of sending his own picture to her, Nick encloses a photo of his handsome friend Pen Walton.
A young man's fiancée believes he should sew all his wild oats before marriage, so he sets out to do it all in one night.
Josephine Darchat lives with her Whipple grandparents in the country and loves Russ Prendergast, son of wealthy Calvin Prendergast, despite the dispute between the families over a spring between their properties.
Auto racer Speed Carr enters a marathon race across the United States, from New York to Los Angeles. He encounters numerous obstacles not related to the race and must switch identities and vehicles before he can finish.
Audacious Jeanne works in a book bindery, is given a diary written by Thomas Dodd to bind. The diary portrays Dodd as a scoundrel who fathered a girl by a woman he never married, and Dodd's family as a nest of vipers. Jeanne decides it is her duty to save this corrupt family and presents herself to Dodd as his illegitimate daughter. In fact, Dodd is a meek old man whose scandalous diary was pure fantasy, and the only hostile member of the family is Dodd's greedy brother Jerry, who was the only sympathetic character in Dodd's diary. Jeanne falls in love with Dodd's nephew Kent, though she dutifully urges him to marry Hazel Jenkins, a woman whom Jeanne believes Kent has wronged. A lost film.
Samuel Butters breaks his engagement with Belle Bright—a strict ranch owner—to marry Violet White after falling for her at a summer hotel. Despite Belle withholding his investment money and threatening foreclosure on his struggling, family-filled new home, the twins' charm changes her heart.
"Peg" O'Connell, a cheerful, unrefined Irish girl from a fishing village, moves in with her wealthy, haughty aunt, Mrs. Chichester, in England to satisfy the terms of her grandfather's will. Peg faces cold treatment from her aunt and cousin, who are in financial trouble and covet the inheritance, creating a "clash of classes" dynamic. Peg falls for Jerry, a family friend who is actually Sir Gerald Adair, the executor of her estate and her guardian. After overcoming misunderstandings and an attempt to return to her father, Peg finds happiness, love, and acceptance, with the story highlighting the superiority of her honest nature over aristocratic snobbery.