Olaf writes his memoirs, before his execution. He tells of his life as a struggling farmer when Renie, stranded in the village, stays one night in his home and Olaf falls in love with her.
The plan is this: a foreign man of war is interned in the harbor. By blowing up this boat, Carney figures that strained relation existing between this country and warring nations will snap and the United States will be drawn into the conflict.
Jim Blake, the playboy son of a New York millionaire, heads west to prove himself a man. He goes to work on his father's ranch in Wyoming, and eventually wins over the locals by turning the tables on a town bully and trying to collect damages from a railroad magnate, whose trains have killed many of the Blake ranch's cattle.
Prof. Alonzo Bozzle, an eccentric zoologist, has taken up the study of evolution as promulgated by Darwin and is pondering especially on the idea that there is a "missing link.
The story takes place in Monte Carlo, where the impoverished Julian proposes marriage to the wealthy Dora, only to be turned down by the girl's mercenary mother.
Captain Mills is jealous of Jim Clifford, his fellow officer at the British War Department, so he steals an important document in an attempt to make Clifford look bad.