Four lifelong friends share one very special summer. They develop an enduring bond despite their distinctly different emerging personalities.

The marriage of a wealthy and frivolous member of French nobility, Loyette Merval, to an American aristocratic idler named Willard Standish, is a loving one, except for their mutual dissatisfaction with Willard's idleness. After Willard becomes a chauffeur, Loyette's subsequent disgust causes him to quit. When the war begins, Willard joins the French Secret Service, while Loyette continues her social life, upset about their separation. After Willard, wounded, hides in a convent, Loyette leaves to find him.

Aurora Meredith is the daughter of the village blacksmith. Because she has a promising voice, her family does everything they can to develop her talent. A wealthy New York woman hears her sing and sends her to Europe to study. But the woman dies, and Aurora borrows money for her last year from a hot-blooded Italian man. Instead of being paid back financially, the Italian wants her love, and she rejects him.

Newspaper publisher Temple Trask, who answers the "Letters to the Lovelorn" column under the nom-de-plume "Mrs. Carfax," becomes the hit of his college reunion when he revives his female impersonation act. Returning home, Temple meets Billy Wise, another college friend, who wagers one hundred dollars that Temple will not go into a restaurant dressed as a woman. He takes the dare, then sees Helen Scott in the restaurant and, although he is a cynic who does not like women because he knows too much about them, he falls in love. When he notices that Adrian Graw, a crook whom Temple knew when he was a cub reporter, is after Helen's fortune, Temple, impersonating Mrs. Carfax, accompanies Helen and her grandmother, Mrs. Keyes, aboard a steamer to protect them. A lost film.

Molly Malone dances at a Coney Island sideshow to attract crowds. She loves Joe Holmquist, "The Human Submarine," as does Molly's mother Kate, the "Mystic Hindu Seeress." One day while Molly is dancing, her slipper hits the eye of an admirer who identifies himself as Chauncy Ewing. After arousing Joe's jealousy, Molly turns down Chauncy's proposal, because she still loves Joe, but when she sees Joe in a forced embrace with Kate, Molly elopes with Chauncy to his wealthy Aunt Henrietta's vacant Brooklyn home, planning to marry the next day.