Anna Karenina is a married aristocrat and socialite living in Saint Petersburg. She is living a torrid romance with a wealthy and young count, he loves her and is willing to marry her once she leave her husband.
Doris Poole, whose parents were theatrical people, was orphaned as a child, and four members of the troupe adopted and raised her. When grown, she has become the leading lady in a San Francisco stock-company. She meets and falls in love with Ted, the millionaire son of a rich widow, but she thinks he is only a tax-cab driver. His mother objects to the romance and looks into Doris' past. She learns that her father had murdered, in a fit of jealousy, her mother, and tells Doris what she has found out. The four actors who had raised her had never told her how she happened to become an orphan. They persuade Ted's mother to send him on a voyage to the Orient in order to get him away from Doris. But they neglected to tell the mother they had also booked passage for Doris on the same ship.
A young man marries an actress, but meanwhile her uncle has signed a contract binding her to spinsterhood, many complications arise.
The ambassador of the Kingdom of Luvaria orders Baron Belmar, his attaché, to win the interest of Mona, wife of the war minister, who opposes a treaty the ambassador very much wants signed. However, his mission is complicated by the fact that Helene, the ambassador's wife, is extremely jealous of every woman he meets, for she was responsible for getting him his appointment as attaché. Belmar, nevertheless, is in love with Greta, who will not marry him until he is proven worthy of her trust. After many narrow escapes from exposure of the personal intrigue, he manages to sway the attentions of Mona, who persuades the war minister to sign the treaty, thus gaining Belmar an appointment as ambassador to Peru and Greta as his wife.
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....
While working as a dishwasher in a fashionable New York hotel, Elsie MacFarland often sneaks upstairs to enviously peek at the people dancing to jazz music. Seeing the attractive Elsie dressed in a boy's uniform, wealthy Lemuel Stallings wagers a friend that he can get Elsie onto the dance floor....
Lacking patients, Dr. Sumner sets himself up as a psychologist and opens a sanitarium, becoming quite successful. Virginia Zelva, a clairvoyant who wants to get into what she regards as a racket, signs on as his nurse. Sumner falls in love with Virginia and, after numerous complications, wins her for his bride.
When she is orphaned Lily Upjohn, from the London slums, becomes a chorus girl at the Pandora Theatre. During a performance a scene painter drops some paint near Lily and her screams prompt the show's composer to create a hit song "Mind the Paint Girl," which Lily makes an overnight sensation. She is courted by young officer Nicholas Jeyes and by Lord Francombe. Driving both men to near ruin she promises marriage to both but in the end choses neither.
When Pinto reaches her eighteenth birthday, the five wealthy Arizonans who adopted her upon the death of her parents decide that ranch life will never make a lady of her. Their old friend Pop Audry, formerly of Arizona and now a member of New York society, agrees to provide Pinto with the necessary education. Accordingly, Pinto and her cowboy nursemaid Looey are dispatched to New York where they lose Audry's address. ...
Cowboy Billy Fortune is in love with Hope Beecher, who prefers Billy's friend Ben Morgan, but resists his advances because of his fondness for drink. Hope's discontent is echoed by the town wives' public outcry against drink. To divert their interest, Billy is nominated to make love to their leader, widow Fay Bittinger, who has already disposed of four husbands....
When her cotton crop is burned, Barbara Pelham, a beautiful southern girl, comes to New York to find work as a fashion designer, staying with Mrs. Kemp, a woman she meets on the northbound train. In Mrs. Kemp's house, Barbara encounters Peter Heffner, a wealthy stockbroker, and discovers from him that she has taken up residence in a whorehouse. There is a police raid, but Barbara escapes arrest and returns home. Heffner's son, Neil, goes south to inspect some family property and there meets Barbara, with whom he falls in love. They decide to be married, and she accompanies him to New York, where she meets the elder Heffner for a second time. He denounces her as a whore, but Barbara goes to Mrs. Kemp, who explains the misunderstanding to everyone's satisfaction.