When the story begins, Charlie (Charlie Murray) is fighting with his overbearing mother-in-law. The old battleaxe lives with Charlie and his wife and she orders Charlie about as if she's his wife. Charlie wants to go out to the lodge meeting with his pals...and the mother-in-law insists he stay home. An argument (which is way overdone) results but Charlie is able to get away thanks to a friend who pretends to be a cop.
A foreword warns against the peril of yellow journalism, and the story illustrates it by following events in the upstate New York town of Cornwall after prominant financier George Ferguson is killed.
Scheduled for demolition, Hotel Continental has seen 50 years of romance, intrigue, and tragedy. The last night attracts many nostalgic patrons, including a gangster planning to grab the loot that he hid there many years ago.
Thelma and Zazu are on a leisurely excursion in a borrowed car. Thelma lets Zazu drive. When she brakes to avoid a bull pulled along by three rustics, her foot gets stuck and the car crashes through a barn.
Eight Girls concerns an all-female rowing team with its own club-house. One of the team announces she pregnant and finds herself torn between men (father and fiancé) who want the child aborted and the women who want her to keep it and bring it up at the club.