Acting
Hugon, a Canadian backwoodsman who is respected for his strength both of limb and of character, falls in love with Marie even though she has another sweetheart, a young man named Gabriel. Realizing that Marie favors Gabriel, Hugon good-naturedly offers to help the boy develop muscles and stamina but soon abandons the hopeless task. Meanwhile, Roque and his group of crooked surveyors have made plans to swindle the woodsman out of his property.
Country girl Annabel Lee has big dreams of being a famous artist. Her widowed mother encourages her to go to the city so she can study. Annabel works hard, but she sells only one painting. She discovers that a renowned artist is spending the summer at a nearby resort, so she sends him her best work for a critique. A friend recommends that she see him in person, so Annabel pawns a piece of jewelry and heads for the resort. The artist informs her that she doesn't have enough talent to achieve much.
After losing his factory job, virtuoso violinist Tommy Breen is inspired by June Norton, who lives in the same boardinghouse to write his song, "When You Smile with Your Eyes in Mine." Song publisher Simon Berg signs Tommy and the song becomes an enormous success. Success goes to Tommy’s head, he forgets June, surrounds himself with Broadway lowlife, spends extravagantly, and becomes infatuated with Mona Merwin, a musical comedy performer. He hits a rough patch, and June asks Berg to help her save Tommy from himself, so he decreases Tommy's royalty checks. Tommy's Broadway friends desert him when the checks stop coming. Now that Tommy has seen the error of his ways Berg sends him to a country cottage he purchased in Flatbush, where Tommy finds June waiting to marry him.
A young bank clerk wants to marry her, but Nell Fanshawe decides that soda clerk John Stanley is the one for her. Because John does not have enough money to marry, however, Nell encourages him to go to New York, where he becomes a successful antique salesman for Jellaby and Co. Steve Ratling, a vindictive discharged salesman, convinces John to gamble the $300 he took in on a large sale, because he didn't get a deserved raise. After John loses the money, he disappears, leaving a note to Jellaby saying that his pocket was picked, but that he will repay the money.
Missy, the heiress to her uncle's fortune, resolves to make atonement for the innocent lives lost when her uncle's box factory burns down because of his criminal carelessness. After her uncle dies, Missy disguises herself as an employee of the new factory and does settlement work where she meets Rupert Bawlf and his wife Cynthia. Rupert's friends Oliver Cloyne and Dr. Paton observe Rupert's infatuation with Missy and tell her that Rupert is the subject of gossip in society circles. Cloyne persuades Missy to wed him and avert scandal for the Bawlfs, and promises to divorce her later. After the honeymoon, Cloyne discovers Missy is an heiress. He kisses her twice and declares that if he kisses her a third time it will mean that he plans to keep her. Rupert is rejected by Missy and repents. Cloyne rescues Missy from a fire and gives her a third kiss that signifies their mutual love.
Man-haters Pamela Gordon, Violet and Kate West, each disappointed in love, vow never to marry, and room together with a sign above their door reading "No man shall cross this threshold." When Edgar Holt enters their room to escape an irate husband whose jealousy he mistakenly aroused, he falls in love with Pamela, but she makes him leave through a window across an ironing board over a courtyard. Edgar woos Pamela but he is unsuccessful in breaking down her resolve, even though she privately softens and develops a love for him. To help her, Edgar secretly gets her a position as a confidential secretary with his firm.
American heiress Bettina Vanderpoel departs for England to visit her sister Rosalie and her impoverished nobleman husband Sir Nigel Anstruthers. Arriving at their dilapidated estate, Betty finds that Nigel not only has wasted Rosalie's fortune but has treated his wife and their little son cruelly. Betty jumps into action promptly repairing the estate with her own money and seeking to offer some relief to her sister by introducing her into English society. In the process, she meets Lord Mount Dunstan, a proud but penniless nobleman who lives in the adjacent estate. Strongly attracted to Betty, he nonetheless avoids her so as not to appear a fortune hunter. When an epidemic breaks out among the farmers it leads to life changing consequences for both sisters and the men in their sphere.
Molly is a wife of wealthy Britisher Sam Thornhill. Though devoutly loyal to her husband, the capricious Molly can't seem to avoid getting herself into compromising situations. The limit comes when a pair of Molly's stockings find their way into the boudoir of another man.
Sallie Waters inherits $5,000 along with other legatees unknown to her. Whichever of the heirs uses his initial bequest to the best advantage is to receive the main residue of the estate.
At a boys' boarding school, young Stoddard and his pal "The Wop" develop a scheme to get rich after "The Wop" finds a pearl in an oyster in a restaurant.
Easygoing Barbara Townsend is never jealous and allows her husband, Richard (Harrison Ford), to come and go as he pleases. Townsend, however, takes her considerate nature as neglect and he believes that Barbara has ceased to love him. Vampy Dorothy Mitchell convinces Townsend that he should seek a divorce, which he does, and Barbara is too proud to object.
