A dedicated young doctor places his patients above everyone else in his life. Unfortunately, his social register fianceé can't accept the fact that he considers an appointment in the operating room more important than attending a cocktail party. He soon drifts into an affair with a pretty nurse who shares his passion for healing.
Scion of the once-rich Mitchell family, Herbert Wynn is found shot to death. Nurse Adams, bored by hospital routine, is recruited by the police to ferret out clues as she tends to Wynn's elderly aunt Julia. Jokingly given the 'rank' of Miss Pinkerton, after the famous detective agency, Adams probes into the mystery, but not before a second death.
A farmer's widow takes on the land and her late husband's tempestuous son.
Among the travelers of varied backgrounds that meet and interact on one night at Union Depot, a metropolitan train station, are Chick and his friend Scrap Iron, both newly released from prison after serving time for vagrancy. Hungry and desperate for a break, Chick fortuitously comes across across a valise abandoned by a drunken traveler. In it he finds a shaving kit and a suit of clothes with a bankroll, which help transform the affable tramp into a dashing gent. After buying himself a meal, Chick seeks some female companionship among the many hustlers who walk the station. He propositions Ruth Collins, a stranded, out-of-work showgirl and takes her to the station's hotel.
Dan works for Pritchard and Pritchard out of San Francisco and is in love with Maisie, referred to as "the icebox" by his news reporter friend. As one of his ships returns to San Francisco, Dan learns that the Captain has contracted Leprosy and asks Dan to be the guardian of his South Sea island daughter Tamea. Dan soon learns that Tamea wants him and will do nothing without a kiss. But Tamea soon learns that she is different than Dan and Maisie and that makes her angry. Dan decides to go and live on the island with Tamea, but soon finds out that Paradise is not everything that he thought it was.
"Strong Boy" is offered a promotion for saving a child from being crushed by a trunk, but to the frustration of his girlfriend Mary, he is not ambitious enough to take a white-collar position. But when he thwarts an attempted train robbery and saves the Queen of Lisonia's jewels, he is viewed as a hero and Mary finally agrees to marry him.
Ellen McHugh, a poor Irish immigrant to America, finds work in a carnival and is thus able to send her son Brian to a fine school. But when her position is found out, the school expels Brian. Mrs. McHugh feels compelled to allow the school principal and his wife to adopt Brian. The widow McHugh becomes a housekeeper and raises her employer's daughter Edith, who grows up to fall in love with Brian McHugh.
In 1856, slave Eliza plans to marry George with the consent of the Shelbys, her masters, but George's owner prevents the wedding. A few years later, Eliza flees with her son, Harry, after learning the Shelbys plan to hand them over to a crooked creditor to prevent foreclosure. George also escapes and goes on the run while Eliza and Harry are captured and brought back home. Mother and son are separated as George tries to find them both.
Adam, a plumber, is happily married to Eve, a wardrobe-obsessed housewife, until she accidentally meets a supercilious fashion designer. At the prompting of her neighbor, who has secret designs on Adam, Eve secretly becomes a fashion model by day, knowing that her husband would disapprove.
Barry Weston is raised by his widowed mother and is, at best, a "mama's boy," and, at worst, a bit of a coward. He is drafted into the A.E.F. when World War I breaks out, and accidentally captures a nest of German snipers, and is decorated for bravery. He returns home as a hero but Vance, the town bully, challenges him to a fight but Barry refuses and the townsmen mock him and consider him a coward. His girlfriend Janet is none too impressed, either. He heads for the tall timber with suicide as his intent.
A war drama produced only 7 years after the end of World War I. Based on the play by Henry Wallace it chronicles two Englishmen, Dick Chappell (George O'Brien) and Roddy Dunton (Walter McGrail) at the dawn of The Great War. Both men are in love with the same woman, Violet Deering (Margaret Livingston). Chappell, whose proposal has been accepted by Violet, enlists for the war in Europe hoping to distinguish himself and make his fiancé proud of him.
Charley Wyckham and Jack Chesney pressure fellow student Fancourt Babberly to pose as Charley's Brazilian Aunt Donna Lucia. Their purpose is to have a chaperone for their amorous visits with Amy and Kitty, niece and ward of crusty Stephen Spettigue. Complications begin when Fancourt, in drag, becomes the love object of old Spettigue and Sir Francis Chesney.
Wealthy young Charles Carpenter is pressured by his family to marry Suzanne, even though he is really in love with young "flapper" Valerie. He gives in to his family's pressure, however, and marries Suzanne, after which Valerie leaves town. Years later, after Charles and Suzanne have had a child, Valerie comes back to town and Charles realizes he is still in love with her, and she with him. Complications ensue.
In 15th century France, a gypsy girl is framed for murder by the infatuated Chief Justice, and only the deformed bellringer of Notre Dame Cathedral can save her.
A young girl is reared on a desert island by natives and led to believe that she is a goddess. One day an outsider comes to the island, and persuades her to accompany him to preach about the kindness and love she has experienced. She agrees, but she's soon confronted by the problems and travails of the "outside" world.
Ralph Brooks, although engaged to Julia Dean, meets and becomes infatuated with Rita Reynolds. She gains his sympathy by telling untrue stories of her husband's brutality. They plan to run away together but while Rita is taking a large sum of money from her husband's safe, he returns early from a business trip and a fight ensues which results in her husband's death.