Socialite Letty Lynton is returning to New York, abandoning one-time lover Emile Renaul in South America, when she strikes up a shipboard romance with Jerry Darrow. Renault is waiting for her in New York and will not leave her alone, so she poisons him. When detectives take her to the D.A.s office, Jerry cooks up an alibi.

Stephen Ashe, a famous criminal lawyer, lives in San Francisco and is adored by his free-spirited daughter Jan.
One day, Stephen, a freethinker who drinks too heavily and hates everyone in his family except for Jan, is invited by Grandma Ashe to a family dinner. After extending the invitation, the snobbish Grandma Ashe warns Jan not to let Stephen drink that evening. As feared, Stephen does not heed her request, and she and the rest of the family are shocked when he arrives with Ace Wilfong, an underworld character whom Stephen is defending in a murder trial. Soon after Stephen introduces Ace to his family, he is appalled at their lack of hospitality, and he leaves with Ace. Jan, also upset with her family's reaction to Ace, follows them, leaving her stolid fiancé, Dwight Winthrop, behind. While driving home, Jan tells Ace that he is the first truly exciting man that she has met. Their drive is interrupted when their windshield is sprayed by bullets from the Hardy mob, who want to kill Ace. Ace and Jan begin a romance which results in Ace asking Stephen for permission to marry his daughter. Stephen denies Ace's request, but Jan continues to see him regardless. When Stephen comes home drunk from a casino bust one night, he and Jan make a pact to rid themselves of their vices. While Stephen promises to stop drinking, Jan swears off the troublesome Ace. Father and daughter then take a vacation in the mountains to get away from the temptations at home, but as soon as they return, they fall into their past habits. Jan's romance with Ace turns violent when he scolds her for leaving him. After attacking her, Ace demands that she marry him. Jan refuses and returns to Dwight, who has been attending Grandma Ashe on her deathbed. When Dwight witnesses Ace manhandling Jan, he becomes outraged and shoots him. Dwight then calls the police himself and, in order to protect Jan, tells them that he shot Ace over a gambling debt. At his trial, Dwight's defense flounders until Stephen arrives and takes over. Stephen immediately calls the killing a result of temporary insanity, and then declares that it is not Dwight who should be on trial, but he himself. Stephen argues that were it not for his allowing Jan to see Ace to begin with, the whole tragic affair could have been prevented. After calling Jan to the witness stand, Stephen becomes so impassioned that he collapses, suffers a heart attack and dies in his daughter's arms.
The jury subsequently finds Dwight innocent, and he and Jan leave for New York, where they plan to begin life anew.

When a woman discovers that her husband has been unfaithful, she decides to pay him back in kind.

When a death row prisoner tells him he wouldn't have led a life of crime if only he had had one friend as a child, Father Edward Flanagan decides to take action. An advocate of child rights and an opponent of the severe approach to juvenile delinquency at the time, Flanagan genuinely believes that there is no such thing as a bad boy. Starting with just a few boys in a rented house, Father Flanagan eventually establishes Boys Town on 200 acres of land 10 miles outside of Omaha, Nebraska. Much of the film focuses on Flanagan's attempts to moxia.cc influence one boy, Whitey Marsh, who will become a hoodlum if he doesn't change his ways. When Whitey is implicated in a bank robbery, it puts all of Boys Town at risk. Throughout it all Flanagan has to fight prejudice in those who believe delinquents should just be locked up and the never-ending shortage of money to accomplish his goals.

Florence Fallon (Barbara Stanwyck) is outraged when her minister father is fired after many years of selfless service to make way for a younger man. She tells the congregation what she thinks of their ingratitude. Her bitter, impassioned speech impresses Bob Hornsby (Sam Hardy), who convinces her to become a phony preacher for the donations they can squeeze out of gullible believers. She builds up a devoted national following. Then she meets a blind John Carson (David Manners), falls in love, and the sham comes tumbling down.