Marco Perkins is a garage mechanic and a would-be-prizefighter who gets a place on the ritzy country club's polo team because he is the town's most proficient mallet-wielder, having learned to play polo while serving in the U.S. army. His hobnobbing with the town-elite and social upper-crust at the polo-matches gives him an inflated idea of his social position, and he decides he is is moving on up. He breaks off with his girl-friend, true-blue Cynthia Brown, and hits on débutante Gloria Staunton, who appears to have an interest in being hit upon. Gloria's interest lies mostly in showing Marco that hired-hands who can play polo still aren't to the manor born.
Grace Ainsworth wants to return to her career as an opera singer, and her mother-in-law supports her. Grace's husband, Edwin, wants her to stay at home and to convince her, he relates the story of his latest play about a man who allows his wife to return to the stage. Edwin comes to believe that Grace is in love with Harold Chase, a manager, and the couple separates. Edwin has an affair with a dancer, Madeline, and he winds up in a fight with her dancing partner, Vincenti, which causes him to lose his memory.
The son of an American mine owner, traveling under the name of Charles Conant, tries to enter England in 1916 after masquerading as a muleteer, but the captain of his ship, suspicious when he sees Charles look through a spyglass, plans to take him back to the United States. Charles escapes and visits his relative, Lady Dartridge, where he falls in love with her daughter, Lady Joan Templar, who is loved by her cousin, the chief constable, George Templar. Templar, suspicious of Charles' manner and unexplainable meetings and activities, wants to arrest him as a spy.
In order to provide for her widowed mother, Louise Mordyke, Ethel marries Arthur Woodridge, a wealthy philanthropist who is considerably older than she. Although she respects her husband, Ethel resumes an affair with Howard Rosedale, the husband of her cousin Helen. Helen hires a detective, who discovers the lovers at a roadhouse. Rushing from the inn, Ethel is caught in a thunderstorm, after which she contracts pneumonia and dies, repentant but unconfessed. Arthur grieves so deeply that Louise and Helen fear for his sanity, and when Louise learns that he is contemplating suicide, she reveals the truth about Ethel's infidelity. Arthur, incredulous, denounces her. Following Howard's sudden death, however, Helen confirms the story. Louise and Arthur marry, and Helen weds an old friend.
When the United States enters World War I, the widowed Helen worries that she will lose her only son David, who has just turned 21. Although David patriotically urges the employees at his factory to enlist, he reluctantly gives in to his mother's pleas to remain at home with her. When David is drafted, his panic-stricken mother alters the date on his birth certificate, although the later birth date implies that he is illegitimate. Disgusted, David enlists under an assumed name, thus shaming Helen, who confesses her dishonesty to the townspeople. Her son, now in uniform, then forgives her.
Unbeknownst to each other, Charles Macklin and his widowed father Arthur are having an affair with an exotic dancer called The Sphinx. When both come to see her at the same time, Charles gets upset, denounces the Sphinx, and is knocked out by Arthur. Arthur then decides to marry the Sphinx, while Charles then resumes his affair with Frances, to whom he was engaged before he met the Sphinx.
An assassination attempt is made on the life of Paul I, the infant King of Veseria, by Stefan, a henchman of Pavlovitch, the Regent, who wishes to take over the kingdom. Paul's bodyguard, Dimitri, foils the plot, but Pavovitch is told the attempt was successful and proclaims himself King. Dimitri takes the boy king to England to the home of his rightful father, Paul Verdayne. Twenty years passes, and Pavovitch finds himself the ruler or a bankrupt and rebellious country. To save her father's throne, Opal, his daughter consents to becoming the bride of the Prince of Argone, an elderly man with a bad reputation.
A short silent film in which Mr. Toots miraculously loses his tooth. Mister Toots tries everything to cure his toothache. He eventually succeeds with a string and a book. Furious with the staff, he throws the book towards them, and is then freed of his sore tooth.
A father, anxious for his son's financial well being, develops a special soda pop called Dopokoke which is laced with cocaine. Dopokoke is advertised as relief "for that tired feeling." The drink is a success, but the son becomes addicted to it, much to his father's regret. Loosely based on the allegations that the Coca-Cola company and other soft drink manufacturers laced their soda with dope.
Miser Ebenezer Scrooge is awakened on Christmas Eve by spirits who reveal to him his own miserable existence, what opportunities he wasted in his youth, his current cruelties, and the dire fate that awaits him if he does not change his ways. Scrooge is faced with his own story of growing bitterness and meanness, and must decide what his own future will hold: death or redemption.