Wandering minstrel Louis d’Angelo must flee his homeland to America after a duel over the hand of his beloved, Delicia. Finding hardship and deceit at first, he eventually also finds success. Because another suitor, Colonel Navarro, has been intercepting his letters Delicia fears Louis has forsaken her and journeys to America to discover the truth followed by her parents and Navarro. By chance all gather at the same restaurant and the lovers are reunited.
Vallery Grove is in love with Don Warren but her mother opposes the match because he is poor and has no social standing. Don decides to terminate his engagement to Vallery after attending a party where he meets a spoiled rich girl who is interested in him.
A girl, beautiful but heartless and ambitious, was the daughter of a poor miner and was devotedly loved by a man in her own station of life. She accepted his attentions willingly until a young engineer came along and paid court to her. She then dismissed her first suitor. Her father made a lucky strike, and they moved to the city to enjoy their wealth. This sealed the fate of the second suitor for a rich man became smitten with the girl and she accepted his advances. Perhaps she would have married him in time had it not been that she aroused the enmity of an old witch, deeply skilled in magic.
Perla Quaranta, a half-starved "daughter of Little Italy," is given the place in Carlo Bruni's "Butterfly Act" that is vacated by a chorus girl who has become overweight. Although Perla becomes friendly with Krug, the wire-man, she rejects him as a suitor, and in revenge Krug causes Perla's wire to break.
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.
In a small town in Virginia, Faith Corey, daughter of a socially prominent family, meets and falls in love with Jerry Malone, a prizefighter, though her straitlaced mother wants her to marry Siegfried, a spellbinding "missionary reformer." Though Grandma Corey promotes the romance with the prizefighter, Mike, the fighter's hardboiled, wisecracking manager, tries to keep them apart; following a quarrel, Faith reconciles herself to marrying Siegfried, but when he invites a group of "weak sisters" to a revival meeting, he is disgraced when one accuses him of her downfall. Finally, with Mike's advice, Jerry wins back Faith and they are united with the family's blessings.
Sweedie, the cook, reads an ad in the newspaper for a maid to give her services in exchange for college tuition. She applies and is accepted.
Lucy works for the Grouch family, and is used to being overworked and abused. But when Mr. Grouch punches her sweetheart, Bill, she has had enough. She grabs a knife and chases Mr. Grouch until he apologizes to Bill.
Four heirs to a family fortune are summoned to appear at the family estate for the reading of the will, where they meet the estate's staff, which includes a nurse, a crazed doctor, and a sinister handyman.