Male and female sales agents, Phil and Ruth, for rival hosiery concerns try to land an order. For a while Phil succeeds and puts on an exhibition but Ruby makes the mannequins use her own brand of hose, flirts with the buyer and wins order away from her rival.
This part-talkie (17 minutes of dialogue in its 83-minute running time) tells the tale of Christina, the daughter of Dutch toymaker Niklaas. Much to her dad's dismay, Christina falls in love with sideshow huckster Jan. Likewise disapproving of the romance is Jan's jealous employer Mme. Bosman, who frames the young man on an embezzlement charge.
Captain Angus Swope (Noab Beery), known as The Black Yankee, skipper of the Golden Bough, treats his crew shamefully and he treats women no better, as evidenced by his handling of a woman he has abducted, together with her baby daughter, Mary (Sally Blaine), from seaman Newman (Willard Robertson). When the woman dies as a result of his cruelty, he brings up Mary as his own daughter.
Very wealthy Bettina is also very reluctant to get married. She changes her mind in a hurry when she meets Reynaud, the nephew of Abbe Constantin, the poverty-stricken religious leader of the small French village of Longueval.
Gabrielle Picard (Elda Hall) and Pierre Dupont (Rupert Julian) are lovers in a small French village in the early 1870s; Gabrielle's brother Anatole (Kingsley Benedict) is Pierre's best friend. The two young men are called to service by their country and go to Algiers. Anatole becomes the bugler and one day when he is commanded to sound the retreat, he sounds for the troops to charge instead. Anatole becomes a hero because of his action, but when the two men make their victorious return home, they find the Picard home ransacked and Gabrielle gone.
Olaf writes his memoirs, before his execution. He tells of his life as a struggling farmer when Renie, stranded in the village, stays one night in his home and Olaf falls in love with her.
Ethel Warren returns from studying in Europe to make her debut in New York with the opera company in which Jean Paurel, world-famous baritone, is the star. Carlo Sonino, also a member of the company, falls in love with Ethel and warns her against becoming infatuated with the amorous singer.
During the Easter Carnival, Dolores de Cordova flirts with Juan Estudillo, not knowing that he is a member of the family with whom her ancestors have long feuded. Dolores' cousin, Pedro Toral, jealous of her attentions to Juan, kills her brother that night and after leaving Juan's handkerchief by the body, makes Dolores swear to avenge the death with her own hands....