Irene Aldwyn

Newly elected police court judge John Fairbrother is impassioned when it comes to the laws affecting the dives and cabarets of the city, and promises equal justice for all.

An artist is in the countryside, painting, when he meets a girl in a roadster. They fall in love, but the girl marries a lawyer for his money. She should have waited -- the artist becomes a huge success, commanding a thousand dollars for a portrait sitting. The girl convinces her husband to let the artist paint her, but one night while she is visiting his studio, a thieving relative of his enters and is killed by a servant. To protect the girl, the artist allows himself to be accused of the murder. Her husband happens to be the prosecuting attorney, and when she reveals she was at the artist's home the night of the murder, he prepares to shoot the artist himself. But before he can raise his gun, the servant stabs him to death.

Bob, John, and Edward--three young boys growing up in the same neighborhood--have vastly-different experiences with sex. Bob's father patiently explains "the birds and the bees" to him, and even takes him to a hospital to see the effects of venereal disease.

A priest hears a murderer's confession but can't reveal the truth, even though his brother is being tried for the crime.

Marion Clark, a manicurist, is unimpressed by the wealthy but dissipated men who frequent her shop, preferring city editor Dick Strong, who lives in her boardinghouse. Dick's sister Gladys, however, is intrigued by the wilder side of life in New York and allows one of the boarders to take her to a lively party.