A seaman on board a sailing ship battles mutinous crew members, a corrupt millionaire trying to take over the ship and falls in love with a girl who turns out to be his adopted sister.
Wealthy Elias Graves builds his home on the top of a hill, where a group of squatters have taken up residence at the bottom. Many of the men in the squatters' village have their eyes on young Tess, and one of them, Ben Letts, frames Tess's father for murder. While maintaining her father's innocence, Tess must keep her love for Graves' son a secret, while caring for Elias' daughter's illegitamate child.
Enid Gregory, a pianist at the Melody Shop, a music store on Broadway, is content with her snappy, routine existence until Janet Fenwick, a society girl whose father committed suicide under a cloud of financial disgrace, comes to Enid's boardinghouse.
In Winnebago, Wisconsin, a Jewish family comprising Molly and Ferdinand Brandeis and their two children, Fanny and Theodore, run a modest dry goods store.
