A leader in the Russian nihilist movement has an American pretend to be her husband in order to cross the Russian border.

Eric Temple is a composer whose rival, both in romance and work, is Sir Geoffrey Pomfret , a nobleman with few scruples. The woman they both love is Margaret, the daughter of Lord Neville. To get rid of his competition, Pomfret tells Lord Neville that his wife, Lady Neville, is in love with Eric. Then, when Eric is attacked by thugs and lays unconscious in a hospital, he steals his opera too.

Ralph Brooks, although engaged to Julia Dean, meets and becomes infatuated with Rita Reynolds. She gains his sympathy by telling untrue stories of her husband's brutality. They plan to run away together but while Rita is taking a large sum of money from her husband's safe, he returns early from a business trip and a fight ensues which results in her husband's death.

John and Flora meet at a ball, but neither can do these modern dances, so they sit out… and run into each other later at a dance studio. Bunny exudes his usual Pickwickian charm. Miss Finch gets involved in a nice bit of physical comedy when her gawkiness makes the dance lesson less than successful.

Brought into contact with each other, Runa and Shep, a dog, become great chums. Their companionship is looked upon with evident interest and amusement by Runa's parents, who do not seem to be very greatly concerned for their daughter's childish affairs, leaving that entirely to her nurse.

De Goat only barbers to earn enough to keep supplied with musical instruments and he certainly keeps a goodly stock of them. Between (also during) shaves he amuses himself by playing solos on the violin or whatever instrument happens to be near at hand. Even when he is running the "scythe" over the chin whiskers of an unfortunate victim, he cannot resist the temptation to play a one handed serenade to himself on the flute. Intent on his music, he allows the weapons of his trade to wander aimlessly over the countenances of his customers with tragic results. When a Chink finds that his queue is among the missing, a fond mother sees her Percy shorn of his curly locks, and Wild Bill from out Nevada way misses half his hirsute adornment, bedlam is cut loose and the barber shop is ransacked. De Goat manages to escape his pursuers by hiding in a lunatic asylum, but when the superintendent sees him, he extends a cordial invitation to sojourn for a while in a padded cell.

When elderly Joseph Moreau and his young wife Therese offer refuge to starving young dramatist Paul Savary, gossips begin to spread rumors of a love affair between the wife and the writer. For the good of all concerned, Paul moves into separate quarters. One day Paul overhears the gossip again at a café and challenges the purveyor of the lie to a duel. Moreau, for his own satisfaction, takes Paul's place in combat and is mortally wounded. Moreau staggers to Paul's apartment where he discovers Therese, who has come to beg the writer to refuse to fight.

A young girl is reared on a desert island by natives and led to believe that she is a goddess. One day an outsider comes to the island, and persuades her to accompany him to preach about the kindness and love she has experienced. She agrees, but she's soon confronted by the problems and travails of the "outside" world.

Living in adjoining homes at Oakdale, Hal Oilman and Alice Blanchard are childhood friends and playmates. Some years later. Hal goes to college, and while there makes a bitter enemy of Bert Peyson by exposing him as a card cheat and a thief.

Enemy agents under the leadership of "Emanon" conspire with pacifists to keep the American defense appropriations down at a time when forces of the enemy are preparing to invade. The invasion comes, and New York, Washington, and other American cities are devastated.