Chorus girl Mary Brown promises to give herself to playboy cad John Duane in exchange for $2500 so she can pay back a theft her brother made from his employers. Her sweetheart, race-car driver Jimmie, learns about it and gives her a check for $2500, but the check is worthless unless he can win the Big Race that afternoon. He leads through every lap but blows a tire on the last lap and finishes fourth. It appears that Duane will soon be hugging sweet Mary, unless Jimmie can find a buyer for a race-car with a flat tire.

Ludwig "Old Dutch" Streusand and his daughter Violet live in New York, and after years of hard study and labor Old Dutch completes his invention: the "teloptophone," a device which, when attached to a telephone, enables the speaker to see the party at the other end of the wire.

Genevieve arrives at the Hubbard farm in New York State in a chauffeur-driven limousine, bringing along her maid, her pet dog, and custom-made silk overalls modeled after Russian ballet attire. She eventually adapts to the labor and falls in love with Bob Hubbard, the farmer's youngest son. However, when Bob enters an army training camp, he finds military life distasteful and goes AWOL to return home. Genevieve successfully persuades Bob to return to his post and fulfill his duty. Though their initial secret meeting leads to Genevieve being sent away by the elder Hubbard, Bob eventually obtains a leave of absence to clear her name. He becomes a resolute soldier, and the two resolve to marry once the war is over.

Mirandy, the daughter of a laundress, scrubs floors in an opera house. Before she can marry the handsome organist for the opera, she decides she must improve her social standing.

Louisiana is a mountain girl living in North Carolina. A poor girl, she is sent by her father to work in a resort hotel in order to obtain some cultural improvements. There she falls in love with a wealthy young man, much to the chagrin of the angry young mountain boy who wants her to give up her cultured ways and come back to the hills with him.

Unable to support her second child, a boy, Alice Baldwin gives him up to the wife of Edward Stevens, a wealthy manufacturer. Her other child, a daughter, grows up, marries, and selfishly neglects her mother. Twenty years pass, and Alice's son, Edward, Jr., wins a place in the Stevens piano factory and falls in love with Julia Brennon, the owner's daughter. Meanwhile, the mother leaves home when her son-in-law objects to her presence, and she is rescued from a suicide attempt by Edward and Julia. At his foster father's home he realizes her identity, and at last they find happiness together.

Sato (Sessue Hayakawa) faithfully works for importer James Thornton (James Neill). When the old man dies, he leaves his daughter Mildred (Vivian Martin) in Sato's care. Sato loves the girl, but as he is Japanese he cannot hope to ever marry her (at least not in the racially prejudiced era of the early 1900s). Besides, Mildred loves Harry Maxwell (Tom Forman), who was raised alongside her.

Betty Brown is an egregious coquette and flirt. She fools a pair of lovers, and her indecision lands her in a pretty mess at a Hartford hotel, where she is cajoled into passing herself off as the wife of a man whose real wife is on her way to meet him. Betty just butts into a sea of trouble, for the man and his wife are to receive some money from the former's uncle on condition that the wife meets with his approval. The general mix-up at the hotel caused by the meeting there of all these opposing interests is the cause of a great deal of fun and confusion, the central figure of which is always Little Miss Betty Brown.

When the third partner in their small Cape Cod trading business dies, Shad Gould and Zoeth Hamilton adopt his little daughter Mary-'Gusta. After several years, the two old salts decide that Mary should be properly educated and send her to an exclusive school in Boston, telling her that her father left her a large fortune. In Boston, Mary meets Crawford Smith, but their happiness together is threatened when she learns that he is the son of Edgar Fuller (alias Smith), a scoundrel who had run off with Zoeth's wife and stolen his money.

During World War I, young Dorothy Grant comes home from finishing school and informs her parents that she is going to contribute to the war effort by organizing a "Girls Aviation Corps". She has uniforms made and hires a veteran of the Spanish-American War to teach her "cadets" military routines and drills. Her father owns a munitions factory and is always telling her to be on the lookout for spies. She convinces herself that the family butler, Williams, is a spy because he cuts his grapefruit in an odd way. It turns out that Williams isn't a spy but the people whom Dorothy least suspects are in fact spies, and they discover that Dorothy knows the password to get into the factory after hours.

A traveling theatrical troupe is stranded in a small town, and the leading ingenue, Polly, returns to her New York City hometown broke. She and her friend Bunny, desperate for a job, convince the Hawkers, a "nouveau riche" family from Kansas, that they are French and an experienced maid-and-butler team. Young Zeke Hawker is smitten with Polly, but Polly is attracted to their neighbor, a famous actor named MacGillicuddy. One night at a swanky party given by Mrs. Hawker, her jewels wind up stolen, and Polly is suspected of it. Complications ensue until Polly discovers who the real thieves are.

Perpetua is a rich little orphan with a kind but absent-minded dreamer of a guardian, Thaddeus, who is very much older than herself. Perpetua wants to live in Thaddeus's house but instead is sent to her eccentric animal loving Aunt's, Miss Majerdie. Unhappy Perpetua runs away to Thaddeus’s. He endures her for a time and finally ships her back to his Aunt Majerdie's. Pursued by several suitors whose ardor cools when the rumor goes round that she is penniless. Her wealth having intimidated him before Thaddeus steps in now and declares his love for her.

After her stepfather's death, orphan Marty McKenzie and her companion, teacher Fannie Perkins, find themselves in financial straits. To raise money, they rebuild an old van and travel in it selling antiques. In the process of finding antiques, they discover an old trunk containing information that Marty is the granddaughter of wealthy Mrs. Burgess. Marty and Fannie locate Mrs. Burgess' home, but when Marty finally meets Mrs. Burgess, the welcome is decidedly uncordial.

Abby Lou is the niece of the crabbed old antique dealer, Richard Cobb. Old Richard Cobb has a son who possesses all the qualities that his father seemingly was born without. This son, Tom Cobb, loves Abby Lou and is working on his great invention, a kettle that will not boil over. Finances are the only drawback to its successful achievement.

Trying to support her twin sisters on her own, Jane Neill lands a job working for a millionaire, but problems soon arise for the young girl when she declines the marriage proposal of the always-trustworthy Micky and falls in love with the millionaire's spoiled, lazy nephew. After she inherits the millionaire's estate along with much heartache, Jane finally comes to her senses and goes back to the ever-faithful Micky.

Tomboy Bess Aiken grows up quickly when her mother deserts her father to elope with wealthy Easterner Vernon Treloar. Left alone with her father, Bess begins to long for feminine companionship, and when an opportunity arises for Bess to visit her newly-remarried mother, her father consents. The little girl soon finds herself in a fairytale world of beautiful gowns and extravagant luxury. Believing that anything her mother does must be correct, Bess soon learns to smoke and drink, much to the displeasure of Kirke Livingston, who loves her but fears she has inherited her mother's weaknesses. Bess disregards his warnings until one day she finds her mother embracing another man. Disillusioned, she departs immediately for her father's cabin, traveling through the woods all night. At daybreak, Kirke finds her and wins her hand in marriage.

A young bank clerk wants to marry her, but Nell Fanshawe decides that soda clerk John Stanley is the one for her. Because John does not have enough money to marry, however, Nell encourages him to go to New York, where he becomes a successful antique salesman for Jellaby and Co. Steve Ratling, a vindictive discharged salesman, convinces John to gamble the $300 he took in on a large sale, because he didn't get a deserved raise. After John loses the money, he disappears, leaving a note to Jellaby saying that his pocket was picked, but that he will repay the money.

Missy, the heiress to her uncle's fortune, resolves to make atonement for the innocent lives lost when her uncle's box factory burns down because of his criminal carelessness. After her uncle dies, Missy disguises herself as an employee of the new factory and does settlement work where she meets Rupert Bawlf and his wife Cynthia. Rupert's friends Oliver Cloyne and Dr. Paton observe Rupert's infatuation with Missy and tell her that Rupert is the subject of gossip in society circles. Cloyne persuades Missy to wed him and avert scandal for the Bawlfs, and promises to divorce her later. After the honeymoon, Cloyne discovers Missy is an heiress. He kisses her twice and declares that if he kisses her a third time it will mean that he plans to keep her. Rupert is rejected by Missy and repents. Cloyne rescues Missy from a fire and gives her a third kiss that signifies their mutual love.

A Union officer exposes the several deceptions his sweetheart has been engaging in. These include , spying for the Confederacy, and posing as a boy in order to comfort her aging and wealthy uncle who has no heir.

The old gardener, attracted by the ducks' antics, goes to the lake to find a basket with a baby in it. He becomes her guardian but passes away when she is fourteen, leaving her the house and garden. Beloved by the woodsman Jean, one day Lionel, a famous painter, approaches her to be his model, and she accepts. Eventually she finds herself torn between the two men.