A group of stable hands is given a race horse when its owner retires from the business. (The group is played by the "Original Sing Band," which uses their mouths to sound like musical instruments.) They raise money to run the horse in the Hollywood Derby at Santa Anita race track. Many Hollywood personalities attend the event.

Aspirations and the lives of several people working at the gigantic Seacoast National Bank Building interweave in various plots. The most notable character is David Dwight, the womanizing bank owner who keeps his estranged wife happy by paying for her extravagant globetrotting. Dwight's long time secretary Sarah yearns for them to divorce so her affair with him can be legitimized. Sarah shows her good side by playing mother to the young innocent Lynn Harding, who she employs as an assistant. Beautiful Miss Harding is relentlessly pursued by extroverted bank teller Tom Sheppard, but he is frustrated when Dwight lures her away with power and wealth. Then Dwight ruins everyone's finances in a successful bid to get full control of his skyscraper by manipulating the company's stock price. Now there doesn't appear to be anyone who can prevent the power monger from taking advantage of the ingenue Harding-or is there?

本片由五个短片组成，改编自20世纪初美国著名短篇小说家欧·亨利O. Henry的五部短篇小说：The Clarion Call / 嘹亮的号角（1908年）、The Ransom of Red Chief / 红毛酋长的赎金（1910年）、The Gift of the Magi / 麦琪的礼物（1905年）、The Cop and the Anthem / 警察与赞美诗（1904年）、The Last Leaf / 最后的常春藤叶（1907年）

Two aging playboys are both after the same attractive young woman, but she fends them off by claiming that she plans to remain a virgin until her wedding night. Both men determine to find a way around her objections.

Tira (Mae West) shimmies and sings in the sideshow of Big Bill Barton's Wonder Show, while her current boyfriend, pickpocket "Slick" (Ralf Harolde), relieves her distracted audience of their valuables for Big Bill (Edward Arnold). One of the rich customers, Ernest Brown, arranges a private rendezvous, during which Slick barges in and attempts to run a badger game on the customer. The customer threatens to call the cops, so Slick whacks him over the head with a bottle. Mistakenly thinking he has killed the man, Slick flees, but is caught and jailed.
Fearing that Slick will implicate her, Tira asks Big Bill for a loan to retain her lawyer, Bennie Pinkowitz (Gregory Ratoff). He agrees on condition that she does her lion taming act, which includes putting her head into the mouth of one of the beasts, promising her that it will get her (and him) to the "Big Show". It does. (West did some of her own stunts, including riding an elephant into the ring.[citation needed])
Tira's fame takes her to New York City, where wealthy Kirk Lawrence (Kent Taylor) is smitten, despite being engaged to snobbish socialite Alicia Hatton (Gertrude Michael). He showers her with expensive gifts. Kirk's friend and even richer cousin, Jack Clayton (Cary Grant), goes to see Tira to ask her to leave Kirk and his fiancée alone. He ends up falling for her himself. Tira and Jack’s romance leads to a wedding engagement.
Tira tells Big Bill she is quitting to get married. Unwilling to lose his prize act, he has Slick, recently released from prison, sneak into Tira's penthouse suite, where Jack finds him in his robe. As a result, Jack breaks off the engagement. Tira sues Jack for breach of promise. The defense tries to use her past relationships to discredit her, but the judge allows her to cross examine the witnesses herself and in doing so she wins over not only the judge and jury, but also Jack. Jack agrees to give her a big settlement check. When he goes to see her, Tira tears up the check, and the two reconcile.

Sassy and ambitious waitress Mary Evans amuses and befriends amiable seldom-sober Hollywood film director Max Carey when he stumbles into her restaurant. Max invites Mary to his film premiere and, after a night of drinking and carousing, Mary is granted a screen test. A studio contract follows. Just as Mary finds her dreams coming true, Carey’s life and career begins its descent.

美国青年巴恩斯（泰隆·鲍华 Tyrone Power 饰）在第一次世界大战之中身受重伤，就此失去了性能力。战争结束之后，巴恩斯来到了巴黎，在那里成为了一名记者。当性感美艳的阿什利夫人（艾娃·加德纳 Ava Gardner 饰）出现在了巴恩斯的生命中后，两人很快就走到了一起。
然而，巴恩斯并不能够给阿什利带来真正的快乐，两人的关系因此陷入了困苦的局面之中。之后，他们和一帮朋友一同前往西班牙参加斗牛节，在那里，阿什利邂逅了名为罗梅罗（罗伯特·埃文斯 Robert Evans 饰）的年轻斗牛士。然而，这段激情四射的艳遇并没能够持续多久，最终，阿什利还是回到了巴恩斯的身边。

From the moment she glimpses her idol at the stage door, Eve Harrington is determined to take the reins of power away from the great actress Margo Channing. Eve maneuvers her way into Margo's Broadway role, becomes a sensation and even causes turmoil in the lives of Margo's director boyfriend, her playwright and his wife. Only the cynical drama critic sees through Eve, admiring her audacity and perfect pattern of deceit.