Gretna Green

After immigrating to America, a handful of European nobles find themselves living and working as common laborers. They join together one night a week to maintain the Continental style they once were accustomed to.

An impertinent son of a wealthy New Yorker, Roger Carr takes the blame for the murder of Norman Evans, whom Roger believes his sister Ethel shot when Evans assaulted her.

Samuel Butters breaks his engagement with Belle Bright—a strict ranch owner—to marry Violet White after falling for her at a summer hotel. Despite Belle withholding his investment money and threatening foreclosure on his struggling, family-filled new home, the twins' charm changes her heart.

Orphaned Ruth Sheldon reads an article on "Love Charms" on her way to live in the home of her Aunt Julia and Cousin Hattie Nast. Upon her arrival, Ruth is put to work as housekeeper, cook, and seamstress. When Thomas Morgan, a young banker, is invited to dinner, he focuses his attention on Ruth, prompting the envious Hattie to claim him as her own. To oblige her cousin, Ruth attempts to discourage Thomas by behaving like a frivolous society "vampire," rather than the old-fashioned girl he believes her to be.

When Sunset Sprague saves Calico Barnes from a bandit, the two men become friends. Barnes is heading out to protect his niece, Rose Loring, whose father was murdered right after his mine struck gold. Sprague goes to help and finds himself up against the villainous Mace Dennison.

Joyce Addison, wife of an American attache in Madrid, looks to her painting as sole entertainment, as her husband neglects her for business. One night late, while driving, she meets and is robbed by a bandit who proves sufficiently chivalrous to see her home.

A ranch owner runs afoul of a land grabber, and both of them are in love with the same girl, the daughter of a railroad owner.

Suspicious that his employers are diamond smugglers, soldier-of-fortune Myles Calthrope quits his job in the African mines and heads south, where he meets and falls in love with Joan Farrant. Joan, unaware that her brother Henry is in the diamond smuggling business, obtains Myles a position in the family firm. Myles is given an envelope of legal documents to deliver, but when he is searched aboard ship, diamonds are discovered in the pouch and Myles is imprisoned. After completing his sentence, Myles secures a job on the Prescott sugar plantation, where he once again meets Joan, who denounces him as a smuggler. Mr. Prescott, Myles's employer, determines to prove Myles's innocence.

Young, introverted New York attorney Jimmie Pendleton is notoriously shy around women. Instead, he spends much of his time embarking on wild escapades with his friend, Herbert Austin. To fund these adventures, Jimmie frequently wires his eccentric Uncle Tobias in Kansabraska (a fictionalized Midwestern location) for emergency cash. Chaos ensues when Jimmie becomes engaged to Herbert’s sister, Mary. Following the engagement, Uncle Tobias unexpectedly arrives from the West. Jimmie is forced into a frantic, comical scramble to maintain appearances and conceal his true, wilder lifestyle—along with his careless spending habits—from his visiting uncle and his new in-laws.

Although she finds the stiff Bostonian manners of her fiancé, Robert Ames, unsuited to her temperament, artist-illustrator Sheila Athlone refuses to illustrate an author's story because of its "absurd" premise that a girl would kiss a man she met only 4 hours earlier. Author Brian Moore, setting out to prove his point, poses as a butcher boy and induces her to ride out to a country orchard. His advances are refused until he saves a child from an explosion, and 2 minutes before the time limit, in admiration of his bravery, she allows him to kiss her.

Chorus girl Peggy Malone, supporting her father and brother, marries press agent Jimmy Parsons. They settle into a quiet life until her "shiftless" relatives move in, causing marital strain and financial pressure. To escape the domestic chaos and support her family, Peggy returns to the stage and eventually joins a motion picture company in Los Angeles. She quickly becomes a famous film star, continuing to provide for her ungrateful family while Jimmy moves to Arizona to recuperate from failing health. While filming a dangerous stunt, Peggy is seriously injured. During her recovery, she is forced to choose between the wealthy admirer Martin Fox and her husband Jimmy, who travels to Los Angeles to win her back. Peggy chooses love over wealth, reuniting with Jimmy (now a successful scenarist) and finally finding true happiness.

Betsy Shelton, an orphan since early childhood, lives in Myrtleville with her aunt, and is engaged to marry Calvin Stone, a young lawyer. Betsy's brother, Dick, ostensibly working in New York to recover the family fortune, becomes involved with one Roger Enderleigh, a shyster promoter, who because of crooked dealings, is forced to flee from the postal authorities. He induces Dick to take him to Myrtleville, where Dick introduces Enderleigh as a prosperous banker promoting a munition plant, thus swindling the townsmen.

Frank Perry's wife Helen is away visiting her mother, and he uses this "free time" for a night of drinking at a nightclub. Unfortunately, when he tries to return home, he enters the wrong house and is nearly arrested When Helen comes back he tells her that the "incident" was actually an initiation rite of the Masons, knowing that his wife has always wanted him to join the group. She excitedly tells her father about Frank's becoming a Mason, since her father is also a Mason. What neither she nor Frank know is that her father has actually been doing the same thing Frank is--pretending to be a Mason when he actually isn't. Complications ensue.

Thomas Brainerd, Sr., as a prospector, is a dutiful and loving husband and father, but when he strikes gold he becomes obsessed with business and all his relationships suffer. Due to his inattention his wife nearly strays and his son bitter at his father lack of understanding becomes estranged. All end happily though.

Tony comes to America virtually the slave of his padrone, who holds him in debt for his passage money. But Rosa Picciano marries him to escape parental discipline and Tony hopes for freedom at last, but Rosa makes it plain that she does not love him.

To prevent David's widowed mother, Elizabeth, from being influenced by her son against their fake tropical rubber plantation investment, the promoters trick David into managing the plantation in Mexico. Seeking to prove his worth after a failed marriage proposal, David travels to the tropics. There, he encounters the brutal reality of the rubber slavery system. He meets Ludwig Hertzer (the villainous "Planter," played by Tyrone Power Sr.), a feared and hated man who runs a slave-labor-based operation. David also encounters Senora Morales and her daughter, Consuela, who are involved in the slave trade. David discovers his family's investment is actually a "rubbish heap." He attempts to warn his mother via cable, but the message is intercepted by Hertzer for his own gain.