A vivacious, carefree young girl is disgusted by the thought of growing old. In her despondency she adopts the motto "Who cares?" and does her best to live up to it, even after she marries the handsome and dashing Martin Grey.

After Arathea Manning loses her hearing during an epidemic of scarlet fever among the children she teaches, her fiancé Arthur Endicott, who is involved with another woman, complains of always having to shout to make himself heard. An inventor, Gerald Staples, gives Arathea an auriphone, a device to restore her hearing, but one of her problem pupils, in a fit of rage, breaks it. Gerald asks Arathea, whom he calls "The Big Little Person -- small in size, but big in ideas," to be the secretary of his new company marketing the invention. He falls in love with her and plays the piano for her even though she hears only rumblings.

Disapproving of the loose woman her father has married, Faith Ebbing leaves home and goes to work, but she later steals $5,000 in Liberty Bonds to pay off Duroc, a blackmailer threatening her mother, Cordelia Ebbing.

Court, a crook, is forced to marry Velma by her enraged fiancé, who mistakes him for her clandestine suitor.

A young man takes a trip to Europe, and when he returns home he brings along the woman he fell in love with and became engaged to. However, his snooty mother finds out that she doesn't come from a "good" family and is, in fact, a clerk in a shoe store, and refuses to sanction the engagement. The young man's uncle disagrees and tries to convince the mother to accept the young girl--but then begins to realize he is developing feelings for her himself.

Gypsy princess Rhona's love for artist Roger Barrington leads to jealousy from her rejected suitor, Francisco. It all culminates in betrayal, a duel, and tragic consequences for those involved, showcasing a tale of forbidden love, jealousy, and betrayal within a gypsy community.

Although her husband and children want to continue living modestly after they acquire a fortune from munitions, Mrs. Tompkins has social aspirations and persuades them to move into an exclusive country neighborhood and send their son Dick to Yale. When Mrs. Tompkins mistakes Louise Allenby, the daughter of her aristocratic neighbors, for a maid, Louise in jest pretends to be the Allenby social secretary. Dick, returning home, hears some girls giggling about Louise's joke on the Tompkins family and for revenge he becomes a groom for the Allenbys, but he and Louise fall in love. During a party, swindler Cholly Van Dusen steals some of the Allenby jewels and blames Louise who is put under arrest until her parents return. Cholly is then caught, Louise and Dick with revealed identities announce their love, and the Tompkinses are accepted socially.

Beverly Arnold is a secretary in the law firm of John Cumberland and Stephen Gray. Both men court her, but Beverly succumbs to the charms of Gray. With her help, he writes a bestselling novel which leads him to give up his law career. After their marriage, Beverly continues to aid Gray with his writing, bringing a touch to his work that makes him famous. Gray, however, in his conceit, becomes bored with his wife and divorces her for Hedda Kossiter, a vampirish artist. Beverly, freed from Gray, becomes a literary success in her own right. Gray, anxious to win her back, is dismayed to discover that her heart has turned to his former partner, John Cumberland.

Miriam Lee is a young woman in New York who works hard for a living. Her life changes when she meets Joe Valdez, a handsome and ruthless gambler. After the couple is married Valdez opens an elegant gambling house and uses Miriam, who is nicknamed "the queen of the night", as bait to attract rich and gambling customers.

After her stepfather's death, orphan Marty McKenzie and her companion, teacher Fannie Perkins, find themselves in financial straits. To raise money, they rebuild an old van and travel in it selling antiques. In the process of finding antiques, they discover an old trunk containing information that Marty is the granddaughter of wealthy Mrs. Burgess. Marty and Fannie locate Mrs. Burgess' home, but when Marty finally meets Mrs. Burgess, the welcome is decidedly uncordial.