The film consists of a series of tightly interlinked vignettes, the most sustained of which details the story of a man and a woman who are passionately in love. Their attempts to consummate their passion are constantly thwarted, by their families, by the Church and bourgeois society in general.
A club man's country jaunt with friends leads to a breach of promise suit by a landlady.
A man buys a farm to stop his rich father from evicting the farmer's daughter.
A henpeck man inherits a fortune and starts a club for women-haters.
The Little Napoleon
Two old tars, retired from service, live alone in a cottage by the sea. They sail along on an even keel, until a buxom and comely widow projects herself on the scene when one old tar breaks one of their unwritten laws and falls in love with her. The other old fellow objects strenuously.
A film projectionist longs to be a detective, and puts his meagre skills to work when he is framed by a rival for stealing his girlfriend's father's pocketwatch.
When Gregoire and Lola go on a beach holiday to the idyllic Skagen, they don't know yet that the trip will be the end of their marriage. Gregoire may be wealthy, but he is many years older and several pounds heavier than his young wife, whose beauty makes all the male holiday guests turn their necks. Baron Plessen falls in love with Lola, and she quickly becomes fond of the idea of replacing her corpulent husband with a handsome nobleman. Together, they plan to push Gregoire out of the picture. The preserved material is a fragment.
A young man fakes his identity to impress a girl.
During a raid on a gambling establishment run by her father, Cosmo Lester, Diana Lester rescues Hugh Carton, a member of the English Parliament and a candidate for the Cabinet. Hugh gratefully offers Diana a position as his sister's companion, and soon, the two fall desperately in love.
When her grandson is kidnapped during the Tour de France, Madame Souza and her beloved pooch Bruno team up with the Belleville Sisters—an aged song-and-dance team from the days of Fred Astaire—to rescue him.
When a British army officer, Harry Faversham, resigns his commission on the eve of his regiment's departure for service in the Sudan he is sent four white feathers of cowardice by his comrades and fiancee. In an attempt to redeem himself, Faversham travels out to the Sudan where he saves the lives of his former comrades.
A wiley street vendor flees London in search of the American dream promised by his late father, but he can’t find it anywhere.
Abraham Cadabra, an unconfident young man buys a magic book and top hat in the hope of using magic to impress the girl of his dreams, Penelope Predicament. However, when he meets her for a date, he discovers that his rival, Jock Strong has beaten him to it. Abraham tries to use magic to win Penelope over, but magic may not be the solution.
Nunu and Iago are in love with each other. The married guard Girgola wants to get hold of the woman. Girgola gets Iago arrested and makes Nunu marry his retarded brother. On one occasion he finds the woman alone and rapes her. Nunu jumps in the river to commit suicide but gets saved by Iago’s friends. Iago escapes from jail, but Girgola attacks his hideout and haves him killed together with his friends. Girgola also kills Nunu’s old father and accuses Nunu of the murder. Nunu is tied to a pole and dies in the exile.
A bumbling tramp desires to build a home with a young woman, yet is thwarted time and time again by his lack of experience and habit of being in the wrong place at the wrong time..
A movie star helps a young singer-actress find fame, even as age and alcoholism send his own career into a downward spiral.
Using every known means of transportation, several savants from the Geographic Society undertake a journey through the Alps to the Sun which finishes under the sea.
A scientist discovers that there's gold on the moon. He builds a rocket to fly there, but there's too much rivalry among the crew to have a successful expedition.
The story of an idle rich boy who joins the US Army's Rainbow Division and is sent to France to fight in World War I, becomes friends with two working class men, experiences the horrors of trench warfare, and finds love with a French girl.