While working his way through college, Paul Potter acquires a flock of wealthy friends who encourage him to give up his hometown fiancée, Sylvia Castle, for Muriel Evers, a flirtatious married woman. After Sylvia releases Paul, and Muriel's husband divorces her for infidelity, Paul and Muriel marry. Meanwhile, when Sylvia's father dies after being ruined in the stock market, she goes from one job to another in the city until she tries acting in a stock company. There she befriends Henry Leamington, an alcoholic leading man, who, as he tutors her, falls in love and stops drinking because of her. When Paul discovers Muriel's unfaithfulness, he renews his acquaintance with Sylvia, who still loves him.

Henry Martin receives a letter from Buck Lessen, a convict about to be released from prison, telling him that his time is up and he is going to get him for sending him to prison and marrying his sweetheart, Jane. The Martins and their young daughter move away but Buck learns where they went. Buck is hiding on the porch, planning to ambush Henry when he comes out. Two drunken cowboys ride by firing their pistols. When Henry comes outside he sees Buck's body lying in the grass, shot to death by a stray bullet.

Optimistic in the face of failure, Daniel Webster Opp finally attains success as a traveling salesman for a shoe firm, but just when his prospects are best, he receives word that his stepfather is dead. He leaves at once to meet his brother Ben at Cove Junction, where they settle the estate according to Ben's demands. Ben takes the money, while Mr. Opp is given the homestead and custody of Kippy, his feebleminded half-sister. Sacrificing all to remain with his sister, Mr. Opp founds a newspaper, the Opp Eagle, and begins to promote the town.

The Trombone family is very musically inclined, but their neighbours, the painter Pierre van Hall and his wife, are being driven crazy. This turns into a fight between the neighbours that gets way out of hand, because their reactions to each other become increasingly extreme; at one point a brass band is even used. The police ultimately force the quarrelling neighbours to make peace, by threatening them with jail.

When Mary and Fannie Graham, daughters of a good mother but a father with criminal instincts, are left motherless, Mary flees from her unhappy surroundings while Fannie, inheriting her father's disposition, remains and is raised as a thief.

William Jones, raised by his uncle Frank in the city, was rounder, while his twin brother, Alberforce, raised in the country by his grandmother and two aunts, was the opposite. The grandmother had chosen Mattie, a neighbor's little daughter, to be Alberforce's wife, so that she could always keep an eye on him.