A Seashore Romeo

Hard as nails and as strong winded as a gale in March, Red Hicks may have been a bit "chesty," but he was in perfect trim. The town depended on the champion, O'Shea, the fighting Irishman, to make soft putty of the world famous pugilist, but on the day of the fight there was no O'Shea. The supposition was he did not have the price: and other domestic difficulties interfered. O'Shea's trainer, however, solved the problem and Bed Hicks found his Waterloo.

Fernie Schmidt (Colleen Moore) lives with her parents in the rear of their delicatessen. The smells of the business - cheeses, sausages, garlic and pickled herrings - repulses Fernie, who dreams of leaving this environment and moving into a life that's more rarified. Her father, Pop Schmidt (Jean Hersholt) has plans for his daughter to marry Peter Halitovsky (Arthur Stone), a sausage salesman, but Fernie is repulsed by the idea. At a dance, Fernie meets Jack Dugan (Malcolm McGregor), who tells her that he is in stocks, a paper-counter, and she falls for him. Because of her rejection of her father's chosen candidate for matrimony, Pop puts Fernie out of the house.

When the painter Christopher Bean dies, some unscrupulous art dealers try to get several of his paintings cheaply from a family who have no idea of their value.

American shop-girl Julie McFadden, wins a free passage to Paris; en route she meets Robert Van Wye, who has to kiss her when she loses a sack race. In Paris, Julie finds her proposed residence destroyed, and while waiting for Bob her purse is snatched; in the ensuing chase she gets lost and enters a dressmaker shop, where the two owners are in dire need of an English-speaking girl to deliver some gowns. Accidentally she is given free entry to the apartment of Countess Pasada and is shown to her rooms; the count is in his pajamas when she emerges from her bath, and she locks him in the bathroom.

After her father's death, little Briar Rose is taken in by the men at a lumber camp. The girl shows a definite preference for one of the lumberjacks, "Hell-to-Pay" Austin, so he becomes her new "father." Just as much as Hell-to-Pay takes care of Briar, she watches over him, and it is largely through her influence that he gives up hard drinking and needless fighting. Then, when Briar is old enough, she goes away to school and quickly falls in with the wrong crowd. Hell-to-Pay comes after her and takes her away from Doris Valentine, an adventuress who had been teaching Briar the tricks of the trade. When they are reunited, Hell-to-Pay and Briar realize that they are in love, so they decide to change their relationship from guardian and ward to husband and wife.

After the divorce of Schuyler Rutherford from his rich wife Caroline, who was his meal ticket, Schuyler's sister Kathleen is so humiliated by the fact that her penniless condition was brought to light during the court proceedings that she seeks solace in her friend, sculptress Mary Carter. Mary offers her friend a job as her secretary and, while working, she becomes acquainted with Mary's wealthy cousin Robert Winston when she overhears him denouncing parasitic girls like Kathleen. Vowing revenge, Kathleen assumes a false name and obtains a position as Robert's secretary, determined to make him fall in love with her.

Luke attempts to sell books to a businessman and his wife.

Brick Hubbard, a "printer's devil", convinces his friend Sid Fletcher to invest in "The Gazette", a local newspaper. Sid pens an editorial that infuriates Ira Gates, a local banker and a power in the town-and who also happens to be the father of Vivian Gates, whom Sidney is in love with. To complicate matters, the bank is robbed and Sidney is suspected of the crime.

Sonny Boy's parents are in the midst of a bitter divorce when the boy's mother talks her sister into kidnapping him because she is terrified that her husband will take the boy out of the country after the divorce.

Jim Ogden, secretly engaged to Madge Hemmingway, wealthy heiress, becomes sensitive over his lack of money and breaks the engagement. In a moment of pique she marries Count Van Tuyle. After six months she returns from Europe, minus her husband. Trying to forget her error, she goes to the country.