Angered by his son Dick's boastful ways, which in one incident lead him to lose a business deal, an automobile manufacturer challenges him to complete four difficult missions.
Serious university co-ed Alice Smith, is wholly engrossed, it would appear, in chasing butterflies and rare insects under the guidance of her friend, Mr. Spangle, Ph. D., though she secretly yearns to be an athlete and thus win the admiration of Jerry Marvin, a popular schoolmate. She takes up swimming, making herself the campus joke because of her ideas on the subject.
Pansy O'Donnell, a salesgirl, is given a two-week vacation at a summer resort, where she advertises clothing made by her company. The hotel clerk mistakes her for movie actress Marie La Tour, and gossip spreads that she is staying incognito.
This tells of a pretty miss, expelled from a girls' school, who goes in for a harmless adventure. She poses as a slum girl and is taken in tow by a snobbish society girl, who at first befriends and then tries to impose, upon her.
Helen Steele, who has theatrical aspirations, has been told by Sidney Parker that, owing to her lack of stage experience he cannot entertain her proposition of giving her the leading part in his new production, "The Siren." Believing that she can get Parker to consent if she is persuasive enough, Helen has her fiancé, Henry Tracey, invite the theatrical manager to the party to be given by John W. Cannell so that she may work upon him. At the affair Helen manages to obtain Parker's consent to give her a trial it she is successful in having Jack Craigen, a friend of Cannell, who has been living in Patagonia for a long time and who is a woman hater, propose to her.
When a wealthy young lady loses her inheritance, she decides to apply for work in disguise. In prim and proper working girl attire she becomes the respectable companion of a woman looking to reform her wayward nephew.
Lorenzo Carilo selects more-or-less menial jobs at which to make a living, other more "select" jobs not paying enough, and then he meets and falls in love with Vivian Forrester the daughter of a new-rich family. What's a poor boy to do? He might pose as a French Duke.
A sympathetic showgirl assumes the guilt for her cousin who is cheating on her husband.
Pauline Hathaway is informed on her 18th birthday by the family lawyer that she will inherit half a million dollars, provided that her behavior meets with his approval; otherwise, the money will revert to her aunt. With new clothes Pauline sets out to visit her mother's friend, Mrs. Brewster. Framed en route by a pickpocket, she is sentenced to a reformatory for 30 days. In court, however, she has been seen by Bruce Reynolds, an amateur investigator and nephew of Mrs. Brewster who is convinced of her innocence.
Strong-willed Kathleen O'Hara, believes in equality of sexes, makes a pact with her sweetheart, Jim Donahue, when they become joint owners of a California gold mine. According to the agreement, Donahue will do the housekeeping while Kathleen runs the mine; the first to call for help loses his share of the mine.
A villain attempts to win the love of a pretty fisher girl, who is in love with a village youth. The villain finally kidnaps the girl and carries her out to a rock at low tide, where he ties her. He stands on the shore hoping that the rising water will force her to promise to marry him. The water rises higher and higher, tremendous waves dashing over the girl, and when it seems impossible for her to live another minute her sweetheart arrives with a crowd of the village people and rescues her.
Father wants Mabel to marry a little, wealthy shrimp. She is in love with Charlie, a big, strapping fellow. Mabel is locked up in the house, but her lover sets the house on fire, and In the confusion runs to the minister's house with her. Father and his choice pursue, but Mabel and her lover hide in the chimney. Father sticks around with a big gun, and Mabel and her lover make up as negroes and are married, father being persuaded to act as best man.
After graduating from college, rich girl Margery Carr decides to do some good in the world. Much to the chagrin of her father, she decides to open an office to help derelicts. For her secretary, she picks an ex-gangster named Bubbs out of the throng.
Molly, a glamorous clothing model in New York, though yearning for a life of luxury, spurns the advances of her boss's son in favor of a shipping clerk, late of the backwoods.
Jim Smith and Sallie Rice are very much in love with each other, but her father vehemently shows his disapproval of Jim. An elopement is planned, and at midnight Jim has the country magistrate waiting for him at the cross roads. He goes to tap on Sallie's window, but makes a mistake and awakens old man Rice, who, clad in his pajamas, pursues him with a shot-gun, and as Jim joins the magistrate, takes a pot shot at them, which finds lodgement in the judge's back. When Rice finds out what he has done, he is in fear of the law, but Jim pays the judge to settle the matter on condition that Rice gives his consent to his daughter's marriage.
A short silent comedy starring Mabel Normand and Ford Sterling.
A traveling man is vacationing at a summer resort kept by a farmer and his wife, and falls in love with a rich widow. The spooning of the two gets on the farmer's nerves, and he tries in various ways to discourage them. Twice, peeking through the window, he finds the flirtatious drummer making a fuss over his own wife, and when he rushes in he finds that the widow has returned and is occupying the drummer's attention. He gets his shotgun and tries to scare the drummer with it, but his wife takes it away from him and stands guard over him while she makes him do the kitchen work.
A couple of French noblemen-types constantly argue (Sterling and Sennett). They're rivals for a lovely Mabel's attentions. While attending a picnic near the Hudson River (on a rather cold-looking day), She apparently favors Mack over Ford, so, obsessed with revenge as he usually is in Keystone comedies, he sets her little dog out on a raft and dares chicken- hearted Mack to rescue it.
In this comedy-drama, May Allison plays Teddy Hayden, a very independent society miss. When her childhood sweetheart, Gerry West (Wallace MacDonald) takes her to a Greenwich Village cafe, she thinks she's found where she belongs. So she spends all her time there and gets herself in a load of trouble.
A newly wedded couple get mixed up with a black couple, who are also getting wed, as both parties head for the same train.
Amos Kerran and his wife live a traditional, old-fashioned life on a Connecticut farm, while their son and daughter, Arthur and Maybelle, are successes in New York society. The children want to invite their parents to the city at Christmastime but are ashamed of their unrefined appearance.