Help Yourself

In early 19th century England, ambitious and ruthless orphan Rebecca Sharp advances from the position of governess to the heights of British society.

An English nobleman falls for and marries a beautiful young chorus girl. When he brings her home to the castle to meet his family, she is horrified to learn that she is niece, aunt, and/or cousin of all twenty-three of the staff of servants.

Coming to the U.S. from his native land to study Western civilization and continue work for his government young Chinaman Tsing Yu-Ch'ing attends an American university, then launches a Chinese newspaper in New York City. He also falls in love with the lovely Kathleen Levinsky who is blind. The daughter of a Jewish father and an Irish mother. Kathleen's life is barren of love, and she gladly accepts his attentions. When Dr. Hardwick, a classmate from college, calls on Tsing and meets Kathleen, he offers to cure her blindness through surgery. The operation is a success, but the newly sighted Kathleen is visibly upset by Tsing's appearance. After saving Kathleen from a killer known as the Hatchetman, Tsing returns to China and commits suicide, believing he will find eternal love with her in the afterlife.

While in Europe, Chaddie Green, a society girl, discovers that she has been left penniless. She returns to the United States and meets Duncan MacKail, who is equally broke though he owns grainland in the West. Duncan and Chaddie are married and go west to homestead. Duncan hires Ollie, a Swedish caretaker, who frightens Chaddie. When business takes Duncan away, Chaddie goes to take care of Percy Woodhouse, an Englishman who has become ill at his place fifteen miles away. Her horse runs away, and she is forced to spend the night there. She sleeps under a wagon, but Duncan is nevertheless angry and jealous.

Sis is an eccentric young girl in a small rural village. While most around Sis view her as a joke, she is loved by Ridy Scarboro, the clerk at the general store. One day Sis's dog knocks an oil can into the Hopkins well and when wealthy old Vibert tastes the water, he believes the Hopkins have an oil strike.....

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....

A young woman at life's crossroads is granted mystic visions of how her decisions will affect her future life.

Lord and Lady Algy separate amicably after he breaks his promise not to gamble again on the horses. When the wife of soap magnate Brabazon Tudway, is courted by Algy's philandering elder brother, Algy tries to help his brother escape Tudway's wrath by hiding Mrs. Tudway in his apartments. Tudway discovers her there ....

After a bleak childhood, Jane Eyre goes out into the world to become a governess. As she lives happily in her new position at Thornfield Hall, she meets the dark, cold, and abrupt master of the house, Edward Rochester. Jane and her employer grow close in friendship and she soon finds herself falling in love with him. Happiness seems to have found Jane at last, but could Rochester's terrible secret be about to destroy it forever?

Model Jacqueline Lee meets Barker Garrison, a wealthy bachelor. Scheming to give her a life of luxury, he invents an old lady who leaves her fortune to Jacqueline. At a party given by Jacqueline, Garrison's intoxicated friend Rupert Lewis--who knows of the scheme--confesses his love for Jacqueline; rejected, he proposes a toast to "the old lady in Rio de Janeiro ... Barker Garrison"; and discovering the truth, Jacqueline disappears. Meanwhile, Garrison travels over Europe in search of her, and later, in New York, while motoring, he sees a girl fall beneath the wheels of a car and finds her to be Jacqueline. When she recovers, he learns that she has become a famous actress under an assumed name. Perceiving that he loves her, she promises never to leave him.

Patricia O'Rourke, a good-natured prankster who works as a copy girl for the Sentinel , angers her co-worker Stubbs and is about to lose her job when the managing editor offers her one more chance. Her assignment is to explain the clue that links the Hope Mission, a derelict home run by millionaire Hunter Mason and his secretary, Monty Latham, with a series of local robberies. When Hunter discovers Patricia in his office, he assumes that she is a crook in need of reforming and takes her into his home to be cared for by his mother.....

The wanton dancer Thais, tries to entice Paphnutius from becoming a monk but fails. He later returns to reclaim her soul and follow in his footsteps. They attempt to live lives of simplicity, but the pull of worldliness is too strong.

Jimmy Betts angrily remonstrates with his wife for a letter she has written to Count Henri Duval, while she bristles at the attention that Jimmy has lavished on Mrs. Ella Rice, an aging but nonetheless charming widow. Exasperated, Ruth decides to accept the count's invitation to dine on his yacht, but on her way, she overturns her rowboat and loses consciousness.

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.

Daughter of an Eastern lumber king, Stephanie Trent travels in the guise of a schoolteacher to the logging village of Trentsville to search for "a real man." There she meets Jimmy Raymond, a young novelist posing as a local while writing his story. When Stephanie comes to Jimmy's cabin to report a supposed plot against him, he acts as though he intends to assault her. She nearly throws herself out the window but is stopped by Jimmy, who explains that he is working on a novel and merely wanted to determine a young girl's reactions. In retaliation, she orders that he be kidnapped and held in a nearby cabin, but remorsefully nurses him back to health when he is shot trying to escape.

Dorothy Dean, a wealthy young woman with modern ideas, abhors the institution of marriage but discovers that she must be wed in order to receive a wealthy relative's inheritance. Through Judge Roan, the family lawyer, Dorothy meets Don Morton, who agrees to accept a $10,000 check to marry her and then leave her in peace. After the ceremony, however, Dorothy's new husband takes her to a lonely island retreat where he tries unsuccessfully to win her love.