The gang is playing around the railroad station, and Joe and Chubby's father, an engineer, lectures against the kids playing in such a dangerous area. True to his word, after Joe and Chubby's father leaves, a crazy man starts a train with most of the kids on it, save for Farina who is nearly run over several times.
Once Farina manages to climb aboard himself, the kids attempt to stop the runaway locomotive, but have no luck until the engine crashes into a grocery truck. As it turns out, however, the entire incident is revealed to be a dream Farina had as Joe and Chubby's father lectured the kids about rail-yard safety.
The gang are all orphans, hoping to be adopted by nice families where "spinach is not on the menu". Wheezer, the youngest child, gets adopted by a wealthy couple, while his older sister Mary Ann does not. The gang all comes to visit Wheezer in his new home, setting off an alarm that causes the police and the fire department to come over. At that time, Wheezer's new mother and father decide to adopt Mary Ann as well. The couple's friends all each adopt a child as well; even Farina is adopted by the maid at Wheezer's new home.
Betty, the rebellious daughter of a millionaire, decides to marry the penniless Jean—against her father's will—and runs away to France and lives a life of luxury on the profits from her father's business. Pretending his business is crashing, her father finally puts a stop to her behavior, which forces Betty to support herself by getting a job in a night club.
Successful middle-aged farmer Samuel Sweetland becomes widowed, then his daughter marries and leaves home. Deciding he wishes to remarry, Sweetland pursues some local women he considers prospects.
Rich old Cyrus West's relatives are waiting for him to die so they can inherit. But he stipulates that his will be read 20 years after his death. On the appointed day his expectant heirs arrive at his brooding mansion. The will is read and it turns out that Annabelle West, the only heir with his name left, inherits, if she is deemed sane. If she isn't, the money and some diamonds go to someone else, whose name is in a sealed envelope. Before he can reveal the identity of her successor to Annabelle, Mr. Crosby, the lawyer, disappears. The first in a series of mysterious events, some of which point to Annabelle in fact being unstable.
During America’s Civil War, Union spies steal engineer Johnny Gray's beloved locomotive, 'The General'—with Johnnie's lady love aboard an attached boxcar—and he single-handedly must do all in his power to both get The General back and to rescue Annabelle.
With little luck at keeping a job in the city a New Yorker tries work in the country and eventually finds his way leading a herd of cattle to the West Coast.
Harold Lamb is so excited about going to college that he has been working to earn spending money, practicing college yells, and learning a special way of introducing himself that he saw in a movie. When he arrives at Tate University, he soon becomes the target of practical jokes and ridicule. With the help of his one real friend Peggy, he resolves to make every possible effort to become popular.
Harold Meadows is a shy, stuttering bachelor working in a tailor shop, who is writing a guidebook, The Secret of Making Love, for other bashful young men. Fate has him meet rich girl Mary, and they fall in love. But she is about to wed an already married man, so our hero embarks upon a hair-raising daredevil ride to prevent the wedding.
A film projectionist longs to be a detective, and puts his meagre skills to work when he is framed by a rival for stealing his girlfriend's father's pocketwatch.
Rhubarb Vaselino lives in a small village, when he and his friend, Sapo, enter a bullfighting contest, Sapo dies, but Rhubarb kills three bulls and becomes a local hero earning money. Two years later, he is living in Madrid as a national hero , when he becomes involved with Filet de Sol, and his lover finds out, he must fight the most deadliest in Spain, in the last bull fight of the season.
Newlyweds receive a build-it-yourself house as a wedding gift—and the house can, supposedly, be built in "one week". A rejected suitor secretly re-numbers packing crates, and the husband struggles to assemble the house according to this new 'arrangement' of its parts.
Robert and Beth Bordon are married but share little. He runs into Sally at a cabaret and the Gordons are soon divorced. Just as he gets bored with Sally's superficiality, Beth strives to improve her looks. The original couple falls in love again at a summer resort.