Wally Griggs is your classic meek, mild bank messenger, destined to a threadbare life of earning 63 dollars a month. At least this is what he seems to be. But when he's not working Griggs is the dashing James Brown, an adventurer and storyteller who is familiar with bank president Halliday. A publisher, fascinated by Brown's wild tales, offers him a deal. Griggs also uses his alter ego to help Mary Oliver, the girl her loves.
William Grogan, lives in New York City and meets the outside world only through the little basement window of his plumbing shop. One day he sees and falls in love with a pretty pair of feet, belonging to Ruth Warren, a schoolteacher who is lusted after by Norton Colburton, a dissolute playboy. Ruth is about to marry Colburton, but at the last minute runs away and decides to take a Cook's tour. On the boat, she meets Grogan, who has inherited a fortune, and recognizing the feet, he falls in love with their owner.
Ranch hand Tommy Dawes has a special bond with little Rosemary, the crippled daughter of his boss Bill Nyall. When Tommy accidentally breaks Rosemary's favorite doll one day, he borrows a $20 gold piece from the foreman's mattress to go to town and buy a new doll. However, on the way there he is ambushed and robbed by an escaped convict
Civil engineer Robert Clay is commissioned by wealthy New Yorker Mr. Langham to open iron deposits in the tiny South American republic of Olancho. General Mendoza, the unscrupulous head of the army, unsuccessfully tries to persuade President Alvarez, and then Clay, to divide the spoils of the contract.
Puritanical Abel Blake is planning to marry the domestically oriented Joan when she is called away to a neighboring fishing village to care for her sick uncle. In her absence, Abel falls under the corrupting influence of some friends who take him to Ryan's, a notorious dance hall, where he meets seductress Glory Prada. Glory determines to make a conquest of Abel, who gradually falls under her spell and finally marries her. After learning of the news, Abel's mother dies of grief and Joan marries Dave, a fisherman.
