A comedy about the rivalry between two men from rather different parts of Germany, Bavaria and Prussia, a rivalry which extends from business to a rifle range when they compete in shooting.
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.
Among the travelers of varied backgrounds that meet and interact on one night at Union Depot, a metropolitan train station, are Chick and his friend Scrap Iron, both newly released from prison after serving time for vagrancy.
Stephan Gregorovitch, the unwilling king of a bankrupt Ruritanian country, along with his hucksterish chancellor and musically-inclined bodyguard, travel incognito to London for some fun.
A pretty young lawyer discovers that her father needs an expensive operation to save his life. She goes to a nearby city and takes out an ad offering to marry whoever will pay her $5000, the cost of the operation.