What must a man do in order to put an end to his bachelorhood? For George Finch, one of nature's white mice and probably the worst artist ever to put brush to canvas, there are many obstacles. Undoubtedly the greatest is his beloved Molly's fearsome stepmother, Mrs. Waddington, who has her eye on an eligible English lord for a son-in-law. Luckily, George has an ally in sharp-witted Hamilton Beamish, an old family friend of the Waddingtons, not to mention George's butler, Mullett, and his light-fingered girlfriend, Fanny, whose valuable skills are of particular interest to the would-be father-in-law.
Cal Roberts can ride anything with four legs. He enters the contests held at big rodeo. He wins all honors and meets a girl who races horses to help her father clear pressing debts. Complications follow, but Cal wins the girl.
The honest John Graham and the crooked Ross Cheswick battle for supremacy. Despite Cheswick's unscrupulous methods, Dan and his handsome bronco Tarzan win the Big Race for Graham. Dan's prize: Graham's lovely daughter Sally.
"Flash" Lanning returns to Bozzam City from the East to put an end to cattle rustling. Gloria Hallowell, who has known him by reputation, falls in love with Lanning but believes that he loves Ellen Bosworth, an eastern "lady." Campan, the leader of the rustlers, hoping to lure Lanning into a trap, kidnaps both girls. Lanning rescues the girls, punishes Campan, and indicates to Gloria that she is the girl for him.
Bill is a gambler, whose friend Scipio goes in search of his wife Jessie. Jessie, fed up with her life of poverty, has run off with the wealthy and villainous James. She has left behind her two children on James' promise that she can send for them later. Scipio leaves the tots with Bill when he goes on his search..
Billy Buell (William Farnum), a stranger involving himself with a long-standing mountain feud. The Benchleys and the Camps have been feuding ever since Lew Camp (J. Morris Foster) learned that his daughter Nellie (Doris May) was stolen by Jacob Benchley (Arthur Morrison) to replace a dead Benchley baby. Buell, who has fallen in love with Nellie, returns her to her mother (Virginia True Boardman). That doesn't sit well with the Benchley clan, who arrive for a final shootout.
Teddy Gloucester, one of the group of jazz age "nice people," is caught in a farmhouse during a storm with her intoxicated companion, Scotty. A stranger (Billy Wade) also seeking shelter saves her from Scotty's unwelcome attentions but not from the scandal which results from her father's discovery of her and Scotty--alone--the next morning. Hurt by the snubbing she receives from her friends, Teddy settles down and agrees to become an old-fashioned wife to Billy.
The death of her clergyman husband causes Mrs. Stanley, young mother of teenage twins, to change her style of life.
Ben Jordan runs away after accidentally setting fire to a barn in his small New England community. He returns when his mother dies to find that she has left everything to her ward, Jane Crosby.
Captain "Wolf" Larsen, the absolute master of a seal schooner, is a mystic and philosopher, though he rules his men with an iron hand. On a ferry going from San Francisco to Oakland, Van Weyden, a critic, and Maud Brewster, a novelist, meet in masquerade costumes and are forced overboard when their boat collides with a steamer. Humphrey, then Maud, are picked up by Larsen's crew. Because of her costume, Maud is taken for a boy and placed in the custody of Mugridge, the cook, who attempts to attack her upon discovering her identity. Larsen takes her under his protection and decides to marry her; but as the ceremony begins, the crew mutinies, and Larsen is stricken with blindness as he faces the rebels. The ship is set afire, and though Humphrey and Maud are rescued by another steamer, Larsen, deserted by his crew, refuses to quit his ship and is enveloped in flames.
The hero must solve the murder of his benefactor within six months in order to inherit a valuable ranch.
While visiting Monte Carlo with her aunt, Rosalie Dean meets a young man, Maxfield Gray who is ready to kill himself because of his losses at the roulette wheel. She stops him from doing so, and lends him some money to win back what he's lost. He does, but they're only happy for a short while before Max is arrested for the murder of his ex-wife in the States.
Marguerite, the beauty of an Austrian village, loves the poverty-stricken Baron Erich von Statzen, although her mother is opposed to the affair, having been made suspicious by the hunchback Ludwig, who is smitten by Marguerite's charms and insanely jealous of Statzen. Statzen's uncle would have him marry Helena Boursch, the local brewer's daughter, to save his dwindling estate. Ordered to the front when war is declared, Statzen is forced to leave without saying goodby to Marguerite.
John Livingston is a rich mama's-boy, who owns a blooded dog named Paul. Paul meets Maggie Mutt, and Paul, being a pedigree canine and somewhat of a cad, lures trusting Maggie to the barn to have his way. He then departs for his palatial doghouse at the Livingston estate. Meanwhile Maggie is broken-hearted and also finds that she is in a "family way", and gives birth to a pup she names Hank. Maggie tells Hank to find his "human ", and departs the scene. Hank goes to the park, meets a "human" named Mary Kelly, who is a homeless waif and sweetheart of poverty, and the two adopt each other. Later on in the park Paul comes strolling along with his 'human', John. A child falls into the lake and Paul and Hank team up to save her.
Nightclub dancer Glory Frayne falls in love with championship boxer Red Lucas . Luca's latest opponent is likeable young pugilist Johnny Regan . When Johnny meets Glory, he is instantly smitten.....
A ranch foreman captures a notorious gang of gold thieves. He ties them up and leaves them for a pursuing posse while he goes out to find the gold they stole. When the posse arrives, the gang's leader convinces them that the foreman is actually the gold thief, and the posse sets out in pursuit of him.
Fired from his job for shirking his duties, the 'Knight of the Plains' Bart Miller stumbles across a would-be stagecoach robbery and he rescues damsel in distress Betty Taylor. He takes Betty and her pretty girlfriends to the ranch of her father Bill Taylor. Meanwhile Taylor's foreman Luke Hatton is plotting to rustle his boss' herd with the aid of the corrupt lawyer Harkness.
A ranger joins the outlaw gang whose boss he believes is a murderer.
Our heroine, Miss Velez (despite the fact that she seems to be just along for the ride) is much her usual over-eloquent self (how fortunate she has no sound track!), while Warner Oland makes such an impressive and villainously seedy bandit, he needs no sound track at all. We can just imagine his oily, purring accents all too well.
Dick Scott takes his Wild West show to the Balkan kingdom of Alvania where the boy king of the country commands the troupe to give a performance. The king is greatly impressed with the American cowboys and makes them his palace guard. The prime minister starts a revolution, and Dick and the Americans put it down. The boy king sanctions a romance between Scott and Ruth Elliott, the royal governess.