Roy Applegate

Judge Foster throws his daughter out because she married a circus man. She leaves her baby girl with Professor McGargle before she dies. Years later Sally is a dancer with whom Peyton, a son of Judge Foster's friend, falls in love. When Sally is arrested McGargle proves her real parentage.

The backdrop is fifteenth century France, and Charles, Duke of Burgundy has promised his daughter, Princess Mary, that she can marry the man she loves, Prince Maximilian of Styria. But when the Swiss threaten war, the duke is compelled to take back his word and he arranges for Mary to wed the half-witted dauphin of France's King Louis XI .

While waiting on a New York park bench for the return of her friends, country girl Jeanne Sterling meets Forrest Chenoweth, a rich young wastrel who, while drunk, registered for a marriage license with fortune-hunting Helen Dorr. Enchanted with Jeanne's innocence, Forrest proposes to Jeanne, and they are married by an alderman friend of Forrest's with the license that Forrest had taken out with Helen. That night Forrest drinks too much, falls in his room and kills himself. The scandal appears in the papers, forcing Jeanne to confess the marriage to her sweetheart Robert Pitcairn. However, Helen, in an attempt to acquire the Chenoweth fortune, claims to be Forrest's widow, thus disgracing Jeanne.

Notorious pirate Joaquin Santos lives by the saying, "Dead Men Tell No Tales". He conspires with the prominent Squire Rattray to take over and plunder the Lady Jermyn, a ship carrying a considerable amount of gold, and then destroy the ship and kill its crew. Rattray, who is in love with Santos' daughter Eve, agrees to pick up the pirate, his crew and their loot on his private yacht after the deed is done. However, young George Cole, a passenger on the Lady Jermyn who is also in love with Eve, survives the attack and sets out to find her.

Babs Marvin loves David Darrow, a young lawyer. Babs' father, the powerful Senator Marvin, is supporting Eben Sprague for a seat in the State Legislature. Darrow discovers that Sprague is a crook and threatens to expose the candidate unless the senator agrees to switch his support to him. Babs opposes Darrow's decision, fearing that it will ruin his promising law career. Determined to defeat Darrow, she promotes the candidacy of the village pauper, Hank Dawes, and contrives an elaborate campaign based upon the slogan that Dawes' election would remove him from the welfare rolls. Dawes wins the election, but Darrow is consoled with Babs's love and the senator's support of his law career.

Having misused funds held in his trust by investing them with his friend, Henry Lowe, Robert Reardon appeals to his future son-in-law, James Calvin, a candidate for the position of district attorney, for help. When Calvin threatens to indict Lowe for fraud if he is elected, Reardon's anger becomes so great that the engagement between Calvin and Reardon's daughter Helen is broken, resulting in Reardon's suicide. After Lowe comes into possession of a check forged by Helen's brother Jack, he uses the document to force a marriage with Helen. Treated brutally by her husband, Helen seeks Calvin's aid, but Lowe frames Calvin, now the district attorney, in a compromising situation with his ex-fiancée. Calvin is about to resign when Helen traps her husband with some marked money, causing his suicide through disgrace. Thus freed, Helen and Calvin find happiness together.

Emily Ray, who works in a department store, is taken in by her wealthy Aunt Carmen. Emily falls in love with Oliver Browning, but her aunt dismisses him as a nobody and a fortune hunter. Emily's wealthy married cousin, Rosamonde Vallant, always trying to keep up with the latest fads, gives a party in honor of Professor Syle, a distinguished radical who lectures her guests in "parlor Bolshevism," then takes them to Greenwich Village to meet his comrades.

John Sark is the owner of a piece of land coveted by Henry Murden, leader of the band of "White Riders," who has purloined the information that a railroad wishes to buy the property. Sark is a naturalist and has for an assistant Rose Ember. He discovers one of the rider's masks which is made of one of Rose's handkerchiefs, and this introduces a mysterious element into the love affair. The mask belonged to her father. The riders try to force Sark's hand, but are obliged to capture him. Rose, seeing Sark lead away, dons a mask and riding close to his horse, cuts his bonds. Sark kills Murden, and, finding that his savior was Rose, is once more happy in his love.

Adapted from a novel by Larry Evans, Once to Every Man tells the tales of Danny Bolton, a pugnacious, hard-drinking country boy.

When Roberta Carruthers' father, Capt. Carruthers, is killed in France during the war, she comes to live in the US with her uncle. When she finds out that her uncle is under the impression that his brother had a son and not a daughter, she decides to disguise herself as a male, and calls herself Bob.