Epidemiologist Cliff Claybourne falls in love with Rita Wilson in a gambling house. They want to marry but Cliff's brother is convinced Rita is no good and forces Cliff to fulfill his agreement to do research in Africa in exchange for paying gambling debt. Rita, Cliff and brother are furious with each other, but Rita and Cliff are still in love.

Kate Flannagan and Belle Dugan operate a downtown coffee shop and, while dispensing their locally-famous doughnuts, engage in their favorite pastime, friendly quarreling between themselves. This changes when Belle suddenly becomes heir to a small fortune which allows her to crash high-society and make her daughter,Joan, a débutante. This creates a rift between the two former partners, with the result that the proud Kate refuses to accept her friend's good fortune nor allow her son, Jerry, who is in love with Joan, to do so.

Reformed jewel-thief Sophie Lang, tired of being questioned by the New York City police every time a jewel disappears, decides to head for California only to get into more trouble.

A wise-guy reporter and a tippling sportswriter acquire an unclaimed trunk with a corpse inside.

The switchboard operator in an apartment building falls in love with a businessman who lives in the building, whom she has gotten to know only over the phone. When she discovers that the man's current girlfriend is actually part of a scheme to swindle him out of some mineral rights he owns, she devises a plot to save him and expose the con artists.

An Iowa farmer's wife makes him move to Hollywood so their daughter can become a star.