Taking place over 24 hours, "New Year's Eve" is the story of Marjorie Ware, broke and unemployed, who despairs as her ailing younger brother languishes at home. She runs into rich gambler Larry Harmon and rejects his overtures. She later finds a wallet with 10 $100 bills belonging to Edward Warren.
Dan Doolittle is a poor schmuck whose big talk usually gets him into trouble. After he is fired from his plumbing job, he saves Dolly Davis, who, grateful, promises to get him a job at the company where she works, Owl Taxi, which is owned by her father. That job is as the jack-of-all-trades in the garage, under the supervision of the garage foreman, whose job he expects to have within the week. But Dan becomes the bane of the foreman's existence, in part because Dan would rather spend his time with Dolly to who he is attracted. But after Dan is asked by the boss to drive Dolly to the taxi depot, Dan believes he can make his millions instead by buying a cab and starting his own taxi company. Interactions with Dolly's visiting brother - a hosiery salesman - who Dan mistakenly believes is Dolly's boyfriend, a pair of inflatable legs, and an angry foreman who was fired because of Dan's mistakes in the garage lead to one misadventure after another for Dan.
As a reporter, Dick Farrington is sent to cover an assignment that promises a big story. A lawyer has advertised for an ex-Marine who is a boxer. He makes good beating up a gang of roughnecks picked for the purpose, and secures the mysterious job that is filled with danger. It is to guard the heiress Lady Chatfield, but the hero is told nothing as to the secret in back of it all. Dick poses as Lord Grantmore, wears a monocle, and otherwise acts like a titled Englishman. They proceed to the mining town of Goldbrook, where the heiress is to occupy a mysterious mansion on the occupancy of which hinges a great fortune. The engineer of the mines is deeply interested in thwarting the plans of Lady Chatfield, and with his gang of roughneck miners makes things lively for the pugilist star in a series of fights that are hair raisers.
Johnny Arthur has been ordered to spend a year out west to toughen him up, so he and butler George Davis head out. The cowboys at the ranch don't like him, so Johnny and they play practical jokes on each other. However, when Virginia Vance is kidnapped, it turns out to be real desperadoes.
Reggie Hemingway is a rich broker who continually bullies his valet. World War I breaks out and the valet enlists immediately. Reggie goes to the army later and arrives at the training camp to find that his valet is now a tough sergeant in charge of the recruits.
Johnny is a hypochondriac and he spends all of his time fussing over his health instead of paying attention to his lovely wife. The wife and the family doctor pretend he is going to die -- and behave in a heartless fashion that gets him to lose his temper and get out of his sickbed forever.
The short starts with a duel in the Old South wherein a man inadvertently saves one of the duelist's lives for which he is given a watch. Years pass and we next see the grandson, impoverished and heading to the big city for work (taking the watch with him). His ma gives him a pigeon in case he wants to send a message back home. The watch is the key to getting a fortune and a vamp and her cohort want it.