"Buttsy" Gallagher is a harmless young product of the slums. In all his life he has never been of the slightest importance. His spirit is so submerged that he has almost forgotten how to get angry. One night the gaiety going on in Judge Winters' home attracts him, and he crouches on the fire-escape to watch it. He becomes interested in the Judge, in his pretty daughter Peggy, in her cousin Flo, in Flo's admirer, the Count, and in Bob Ewing, a struggling young lawyer.

A woman with a notorious past enchants a student preparing for the foreign service.

Thurlow Michael Barclay Jr., a bookish mathematics professor, is asked by his father to inspect his mine in Kentucky to determine why it's failing. He discovers love with a local girl named Sally and a plot to destroy the mine by local villains.