While serving time in county prison, Wallingford sees a story in the newspaper that his cellmate, Schenectady, has inherited a mansionfrom his recently deceased uncle. Hearing this, Schenectady dreams of luxury.

Two cut-rate private detectives are broke, hungry and down to their last nickel. They decide to hock their banjo in order to get some money for food, and while one partner is negotiating the deal, the other one falls asleep and dreams that a wealthy society matron has hired them to investigate a string of suitors.

A confidence man pretending to be a mentalist swindles a family.

Tommy McCoy and "Dude" Markey are both in love with Harlem singer/dancer Nita. Markey robs a jewelry store and turns the loot over to gang-boss Murray Howard. Later, Markey robs the safe, steals the jewelry, and, in order to get rid of his rival for Nita, frames the robbery on McCoy. The latter's big-brother thinks otherwise and, with Nita's help, sets out to prove it.

Two mobs fight for control of the jukebox racket.

An undercover police woman poses as a nighclub entertainer to catch the main man behind the racketeers going on around Harlem. Meanwhile two men are falling for her.

The relationship between an aspiring dancer and a popular songstress provides a retrospective of the great African-American entertainers of the early 1900s.