Since 1930, unemployment grows in France. A family, living in the country, is facing economic hardship. The father hesitates to spend his money to invest (i.e. to buy a new cow). On the contrary, her daughter who is unemployed, has another point of view. Against his timidity, she explains to him that the money must be shared in order to change the world. There's so much progress to make in many areas such as health, roads, electricity, school...
The Chen family contagiousness extends to taking on an extra-marital affair. Gua Ah-leh is at the movie's centre: she shines as Lung's wife, who finds she has a thing or two to learn from the gigolo after Lung blithely.
Joyce Reid, a wealthy young debutante, stows away on a cargo ship to China, carrying as passengers her dashing aviator sweetheart, Dan Bailey and and her munitions-producing father, E.
Confederate Col. Lafe Harvey (Earl Ross) travels home after the Civil War, where he must tell his niece, Betty (Frances Grant), that her father is presumed dead.
Paddy O'Riley and Ossie Merrill, Bellport high school football heroes, enroll in distant colleges; Paddy at a small school in the East, where he is barely a substitute, and Ossie at a powerhouse-football school, where he is an instant star and all-American candidate.
Frankie Reynolds (Frankie Darro' ), youngest member of a family of jockeys, borrows $4.85 (yes, four dollars and eighty-five cents) from his sister Phyllis (Gladys Blake), who is not a jockey, to buy a crippled colt from the stables owned by Clay Harrison (Kane Richmond).
Peyton Wells (Ben Lyon) rescues Judy Jones (Joan Marsh) from a very dull young man, at a sedate party given for her by her multi-millionaire grandfather Silas P.