In the early seventeenth century William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson and Michael Drayton meet in a Southwark tavern and begin discussing the other customers who remind them of characters from Shakespeare's plays.
Greed, ambition and hunger-for-power drive John Hart, a New-York-City stock-market broker, into crooked dealings and deception, but he doesn't realize that those he ruined will seek vengeance.
Evelyn Vail (Florence Rice) is a nurse convicted of poisoning a patient. Out on parole, Evelyn decides to fly to Sing-Sing and confront death row inmate who accused her of the deed in the first place.
A miner who was swindled out of his mine by a banker turns to robbing stagecoaches. Several years after he is tracked down and killed, his son comes to town to tangle with the banker.
A family of out-of-work vaudeville performers are finding hard times in the east, so after hearing about the success of a fellow player in Hollywood, they decide to relocate to the movie capitol.
A fast-talking boxing manager and the somewhat hapless fighter he manages happen to run into a young man who was a good prizefighter in his day but is now out of the sport and has a drinking problem.