"Mary Meacham, the most popular girl in college, goes to live with her maiden aunt, Miss Myra. Auntie is a man-hater who has various theories for testing the desirable qualities of the male sex. Mary sees a dreary man-less time before her and sends an S. O. S. to various sisters and their brothers to visit her while Auntie is away.
English hellraiser Richard Farrington is sent by his wealthy titled parents for a visit to his aunt and uncle in Long Island, New York. On the ocean voyage, Richard meets Betty Winthrop, the ward of the wealthy Van Allen family. Introducing himself he mistakenly gives her the card of John Smithers, a conman who cheated him at cards in London. He follows Betty to the Van Allen estate, where he hears her declare that she would rather marry an American criminal than a weakling English aristocrat. Determined to win her over, he pretends to be Smithers, but things don't turn out exactly the way he planned.
West Indian born Corinne La Force, who is biracial, is raised by Henry Hasbrook after her father's death. Corinne loves Hasbrook's nephew, Arnold Curtis. When Hasbrook tries to prevent the match because of her heritage she murders him. Arnold is arrested though Marcia Fleming, a married woman who is Arnold’s mistress and her mother-in-law fall under suspicion. Defending Arnold John Fleming discovers the affair and renounces his wife. Arnold is about to confess in hopes of saving Marcia's reputation when Corinne admits her guilt and stabs herself.
During the American Revolution, Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr are both courting beautiful Margaret Moncrieffe. Fast-forward several years and they again find themselves on opposite sides, this time about compensation for the properties of Tories--colonists who sided with the British--during the war. Hamilton falls for Maria Reynolds, who it turns out is secretly the wife of prominent pawnbroker Jacob Clingman, a friend of Burr's. The pair conspire to destroy Hamilton, who is now Secretary of the Treasury and married to the daughter of a prominent army general, by making public several love letters Hamilton had written to Mrs. Reynolds.
Wealthy Joshua Anson expects his son Chadwick to marry a woman of their class, but much to his chagrin Chadwick falls in love with factory girl Mary McClintock. Anson schemes to break up the romance by framing Mary in a compromising situation, but she outsmarts him and marries Chadwick. Not to be defeated, Anson offers his daughter-in-law $100,000 to divorce his son, but Mary outfoxes him once again by accepting the money, getting a divorce, and then remarrying Chadwick. Mary's last trick wins her father-in-law's respect, and he finally offers the couple his blessings.
A clairvoyant warns divorcée Adrienne Van Couver to beware of Robert Warren, whom she has spurned. The warning comes true after Adrienne's ex-husband, John Dean, meets Warren, an old friend, and tells him the story of his marriage to Adrienne. He tells how her frivolity and malice caused both the death of their only child, and after their divorce John’s romance with Lorraine Barkley who left him for lawyer Henry Armstrong. Enraged by Adrienne's treachery, Warren goes to her apartment and kills her. Dean arrives after Warren has fled and is arrested for the murder. Believing that Dean is innocent, Lorraine persuades Armstrong to defend him. After a last-minute confession by John is cleared.
Vesta Wheatley is the daughter of a Virginia physician; John Randolph is a New Yorker who buys a tract of land from her father. Vesta and John fall in love, get married, and move to New York. They are followed, however, by a persistent old flame of Vesta's, Dick Mortimer. He tracks her down to a mountain cabin, where she is alone. A burglar breaks in on the two, and Dick is killed trying to protect Vesta. The burglar blackmails Vesta until she finally becomes desperate and shoots him in her own home.
Alice Brady plays a farm girl who marries the son of her next-door neighbor. Her dreams of a gay social whirl are shattered when her husband takes a job as a railway station agent in a lonely prairie outpost. Desperate for companionship, she begins an affair with the railroad president's son, unaware at first that her lover is likewise married.
In The Gilded Cage, Alice Brady plays Princess Honore, who falls in love with a handsome prince who doesn't know her true identity (nor does she know his).
Heiress Mary Anderson feigns poverty during her romance with struggling artist Bruce Haldeman, however her status-conscious mother puts an end to the affair. Mary secretly goes to Bruce's studio, misconstrues the situation with one of his models and tells Bruce she hates him. Upset Bruce wants to destroy his portrait of Mary, but the model stops him, enters the painting in an art contest, and explains the mix-up to Mary's father. Mr. Anderson then meets with Bruce and Mary's persistent suitor Smythe Addison pretending he has lost his fortune. Smythe quickly drops out of contention for Mary's hand, but Bruce remains eager. Resolving their differences Bruce finds out during the planning of the wedding that he has won the art contest, finding overnight fame as a painter.
John and Flora meet at a ball, but neither can do these modern dances, so they sit out… and run into each other later at a dance studio. Bunny exudes his usual Pickwickian charm. Miss Finch gets involved in a nice bit of physical comedy when her gawkiness makes the dance lesson less than successful.
Jabez Morton goes to a nearby field to drive some cows to an upper pasture. He pulls down part of Carson Belfield's pasture fence so as to drive the cows through. Belfield, who is sitting on a stump smoking his pipe watching his two children, Walton and Hulda, rises angrily and, rifle in hand, goes toward Jabez.