In the early eighteenth century, pirate captain Jean Lafitte fights a rival pirate and wins a treasure and a beautiful female captive. Although the girl offers herself to Lafitte to save her English lover, Lafitte makes him walk the plank. The girl then places a curse on Lafitte and his descendants, preventing them from ever knowing the true love of woman. Two hundred years later, in the West Antilles, painter Paul Winthrop poses Joe, a pearl diver, as a pirate. Upon seeing the completed painting, each envisions the earlier situation. Later, Joe finds the buried treasure and sails to New York, where he learns that the portrait has also attracted wealthy Lily Demorest and her suitor, Robert Spurr, a "financial pirate."

Sisters Ruth and Eileen Sherwood move from Ohio to New York in the hopes of building their careers. Ruth wants to get a job as a writer, while Eileen hopes to succeed on the stage. The two end up living in a dismal basement apartment in Greenwich Village, where a parade of odd characters are constantly breezing in and out. The women also meet up with magazine editor Bob Baker, who takes a personal interest in helping both with their career plans.

Vivacious Marie Prevost starred in this pleasant little Universal comedy about a flirt who stages moonlight dances at her father's country estate in order to provoke eligible men to fall in love with her.

When police officer Moe Finkelstein and his colleague Officer Salomon are ordered to serve as bodyguards to German consul Karl Baumer by the mayor of New York City, Finkelstein turns in his badge, convinced he has to quit the service because the man is a Nazi.

A gambling queen uses blackmail to stop a British financier from closing her Chinese clip joint.

Jimmy Mason lifts himself up from poverty to unlimited riches. The audience knows that he couldn't have done it without the help and support of his wife Marion. When Jimmy starts cheating on her, she divorces him, receiving an enormous settlement. Reduced to penury by various spendthrift mistresses, Jimmy is rescued once more by Marion, who once more guides him to success-and remarries him, this time on her terms.

A crusading newsman starts up a tabloid with a gangster as his 50-50 partner.

A perfumed message provides the only clue for a blind detective bent on clearing a man accused of murder.

Vera Loudon is unhappily married to the wealthy but profligate Herbert Loudon who openly makes advances to Mrs. Alicia Carteret at a dinner party. Donald Cavendish, a former admirer of Vera's, witnesses her humiliation and advises her to leave her husband, which she is unwilling to do.

While watching from her train window, Nikki Collins witnesses a murder in a nearby building. When she alerts the police, they think she has read one too many mystery novels. She then enlists a popular mystery writer to help her solve the crime on her own, but her sleuthing attracts the attentions of suitors and killers.