A wealthy young criminologist Marcel Leviget is seen forcibly dragging his fellow clubman Dr. Rogers into a House of Ill Repute. In one of the back bedrooms of the bawdy house, an old friend of Marcel's, a prominent attorney, lies near death. Dr. Rogers is also acquainted with the dying attorney, and while Marcel's back is turned, Rogers discovers a distinctively designed hatpin embedded in the patient's heart.

Stanley Jordan, a wealthy young bachelor, attends a Red Cross Benefit at the country club where he meets and falls in love with Betty Lovering and unwittingly offends Mrs. Vandergraft, the social leader.

Rimrock Jones is the toughest and most likeable prospector in a thriving Arizona copper camp. Having already been cheated out of several valuable copper strikes, Rimrock nonetheless forges ahead optimistically, hoping to strike it rich just once more. Unfortunately, he can't find anyone to finance his latest expedition -- except for a pretty public stenographer who uses her life savings to grubstake our hero. When Rimrock finally hits pay dirt, he tries to repay the girl for her generosity, only to find that she wants to be a full partner in his copper mine. While he mulls this over, Rimrock's rivals try to bamboozle him out of his mine with the help of a sexy "vamp".

George MacFarland, a wealthy young man who loves adventure, bets his friends Thornton Brown and Arthur Sole $20,000 that he can commit a crime and elude the police for a year. After he forges a check, George heads West and does escape arrest for nearly a year, despite the proliferation of police circulars bearing his name and his favorite expression, "Believe me, Xantippe." In a Colorado hunting lodge, he meets Sheriff Kamman's pretty daughter Dolly, who recognizes and tries to arrest him. According to the terms of the bet, however, he must be captured by a genuine officer of the law, which Dolly is not.

The "Firefly of France" is an elusive master criminal of uncertain loyalties. When the Firefly disappears from view with a satchel of important government documents in his possession, his sister Esme Falconer is suspected of beings in cahoots with him. Dashing aviator Devereaux Bayne believes in Esme's innocence and accordingly dons civilian garb and heads to Paris' Latin Quarter to get the low-down on the Firefly's whereabouts.

Lewis Vickers accidentally kills a man and goes to Central America. Here he meets Robert Lee, who bears a remarkable resemblance to him. Lee is a worthless young chap whose father is anxious to have him return to the United States. On his death bed Lee turns his papers over to Vickers and begs him to assume his name. Arriving in New York, Vickers goes to the Lee home as Robert Lee, and discovers that the dead man has willed him a badly blotted past that includes a wife and two children and a large collection of debts. He also finds a beautiful adopted daughter in the Lee household and promptly falls in love with her. The only way he can stand any chance of winning the girl is by telling the truth about himself.

Marcus Down makes only $15 a week. He has always paid spot cash for everything, until he meets Mamie New and they are wed. Then Mamie shows him how simple it is to get things on the easy payment plan. At first everything is rosy and matters go very smoothly for the young couple. Then the collectors begin to get busy and finally Marcus has nothing left, not even his bride, for the parson comes to take her for his fee, which had been arranged for on a ten cents a day basis.

The clerk has money to pay the last installment on his home, occupied by his old mother and himself, but meeting a fellow clerk and two girls is "forced" to treat in order to show that he really is no tightwad.

Mason, discharged from jail, promises his wife to lead a new life. While searching for work, he rescues Curly, a newsboy, from the clutches of a tramp, who, in trying to steal the boy's secret hoard, beats him up badly. Mason leaves the now helpless boy in care of his wife, and resumes his search for work.

Sykes, an American engaged to a poor girl, goes to the Philippines as a teacher, and the girl stays behind to await their marriage. Sykes, after some time has passed, has succumbed to the tropic influences, and is living with a native girl, when one day he hears from the girl back home that she is coming to join him and that she will arrive at dawn next day. An aunt has died and left her a lot of money. Caring more for this coin that the girl, Sykes tries to get rid of the native girl, but she makes a row, and he in fear of losing his girl and her cash, poisons the native girl, who dies. He is about to get rid of the body when a young lieutenant of the U.S. Army shows up with his sergeant, inquiring the way to the trail of Indians, and becomes suspicious of Sykes' uneasiness and finds the dead girl.