In the Kentucky mountains, Ken McTavish comes to Kettle Creek looking for the killer of his father. When he learns that it was Abner Harland, he fakes the killing of his friend Rusty, puts Abner in a coffin, and takes off. Lem Harland, seeing Rusty alive, realizes what happened and the chase is on.
After being shot, a dying Marshal Dawson gives Dave Hayes his badge and asks him to finish his job. Dave becomes Marshal but when Bowie, the man that shot Dawson appears, he exposes Dave as an imposter. Dave is then in trouble when Edwards incites the mob to lynch him.
After a work crew stringing telegraph wires across the Great Plains is slaughtered by Indians, Pat O'Leary, the company superintendent, must take out another supply train to make the dangerous trip across open country. The Indians attack and are driven off. On the day the wires are finally strung, the settlers gather to hear the first message from the East.
Gwynplaine, son of Lord Clancharlie, has a permanent smile carved on his face by the King, in revenge for Gwynplaine's father's treachery. Gwynplaine is adopted by a travelling showman and becomes a popular idol. He falls in love with the blind Dea. The king dies, and his evil jester tries to destroy or corrupt Gwynplaine.
Pvt. Smith, an American soldier stationed in a German town during the occupation of Germany after World War I, falls in love with the daughter of the town's leading citizen. The problem is that his sworn enemy, Sgt. Butts, also has designs on the girl. Butts comes up with a plan to get rid of his competition and get the girl for himself, but things don't go quite the way he planned.
Sheila, a feisty Irish girl, loves Emmett, a somewhat shady Irish boy. When Emmett goes to America, Sheila and her father follow and join him. However, when he loses his job, Sheila is forced to get a job in a cheap restaurant. There she meets Rory, a poor American boy who works in a shipyard. Rory falls in love with her but she still loves Emmett. Then she finds out that Emmett has been taking up with a brassy "flapper" named Clarice.
Rinty is a police-dog assigned to a young Scotland Yard police-officer who covers the Limehouse district of London.
A recent college graduate (Billy West) inherits a large sum of money, as well as a dive on the rough side of town. The will states that, in the event of Billy's death, two thugs get the money and the 'Cafe', and the thugs try, through various means, to see that Billy meets his demise. But Billy manages to thwart their efforts, with the help of a pretty young girl.
Chasing a steer across the border a cowboy meets a senorita and stays on making the Mexican Captian jealous. When the Captain plans to have the cowboy killed, the cowboy gets the Captain to agree to a contest between jumping beans. When the cowboy wins he says he will let the senorita decide between the two. But first he rides off to rescue another girl held by the hooded Night Riders and the Captain follows to back him up
Ranch hand Tommy Dawes has a special bond with little Rosemary, the crippled daughter of his boss Bill Nyall. When Tommy accidentally breaks Rosemary's favorite doll one day, he borrows a $20 gold piece from the foreman's mattress to go to town and buy a new doll. However, on the way there he is ambushed and robbed by an escaped convict