1905 was a period of heavy immigration from Europe to America before laws were passed restricting the flow of immigrants. Almost every character in this movie is a recent arrival. Tisa has been in America only four months, yet she is holding four jobs to save enough money to pay for her father's boat passage to America. She works in a garment factory in Greenwich Village owned by Mr. Grumbach, who is studying to pass his citizenship test. Denek, a brash young man, tries to help her but gets her into trouble and her deportation is ordered by an immigration judge.

Princess Margaret is travelling incognito to elope with her true love instead of marrying the man her father has betrothed her to. On the high seas, her ship is attacked by pirates who know her identity and plan to kidnap her and hold her for a king's ransom.

Cleo Moore stars as Mary Adams, whose first step on the road to ruin is a $25,000 robbery. Mary hides the money, then confesses to the crime, secure in the belief that she can dig up the loot upon her release from prison.

Jan Horak is a middle-aged railroad dispatcher stationed at a forsaken spot in the desert, within driving distance of the nearest town. A widower, he has saved his money and goes to town to buy a dog, meets Betty, a flashy blonde who gains his confidence and marries him to acquire his $7,000 "fortune."

Fortune hunter Allan Quatermain teams up with a resourceful woman to help her find her missing husband lost in the wilds of 1900s Africa while being pursued by hostile tribes and a rival German explorer.

John Breen (John Wayne), a Kentucky militiaman falls in love with French exile Fleurette De Marchand (Vera Ralston). He discovers a plot to steal the land that Fleurette's exiles plan to settle on and aims to foil it.

A female cabbie is suspected of killing her drunken husband.

When a matador leaves town to focus on his music, his twin sister takes on his identity in the bullfighting ring.

Pepe Le Moko leads a gang of jewel thieves in the Casbah of Algiers, where he has exiled himself to escape imprisonment in his native France.

A man looking for his fortune in a mine decides to tempt his partner with his much younger wife. The goal? To catch them "in the act" and kill him without consequence.