The story opens with the family patriarch marching off to the Boer war at the turn of the century, and ends thirty years later, with the now-aged principal characters coping with the Depression and the bleak days following Queen Victoria's death.

After years of neglect from her abrasive husband, Joan has decided to leave him. He asks that she come to his last business meeting in Nassau, and tells her what she needs is a child. After being repeatedly warned to turn back because of the hurricane, he is biligerent and refuses to let anyone tell him what to do. Coast guard requests his help in aiding a stranded fisherman and his son, but his hard and selfish demeanor denies any help except for himself. A rude awakening to his wife and a strong will not to let him continue to control her.

A bored housewife unhappy with her professor husband who is too busy with work to pay attention to her, ends up with her best friends husband, before realizing the consequences and how good her life actually is.

The death of his only son makes it difficult for him to go on living.

All is not well on Hummingbird Hill, the King's are at their wits end. Their three children are full of mischief and trouble that desperate measures are needed. When an ad is placed in the paper, Lynn Belvedere responds, thinking that Lynn Belvedere is a woman, the King's are surprised yet pleasantly pleased by the self-proclaimed genius Mr. Lynn Belvedere, who takes on the task of looking after the King children. With a nosy busybody of a neighbor and jealous husband and a Boss who is not happy with the scandalous behavior of his employs family, all is still not well on Hummingbird Hill.

When his young stepson is accidentally pinned under a truck, the driver frantically tries to rouse help in a nearby town. But he is caught taking equipment from a closed service station and is unable to convince anyone the boy is in trouble.

A young Englishwoman and her American husband become entangled when Audrey's divorced mother comes to visit, the girl's natural warning system begins buzzing. Audrey endeavors to keep her scheming mother from being reunited with her father, who has been perfectly happy since the split.

A well-meaning do-gooder spends so much time doing favors for others that he falls behind in his personal obligations. Meanwhile his long suffering wife has had enough of his money-making schemes she decides to take in boarders.

After his wife suffers a miscarriage during an earthquake in Japan, he finds that a young Japanese girl is parentless and homeless and decides to take her in. Hoping of course that his wife will overcome her grief over the loss of their own child. He is reassigned to Honolulu and there he encounters problems with his superior who is extremely racist against his daughter and causes trouble for him and his outfit.

Mrs. Miller is elderly with no money, she makes a living by counterfeiting one dollar bills. This leads to trouble with the US government who can't believe it.

Emil Markheim employs the same ruthless authority in running the bank he founded that he imposes on his own family. His sons hate him enough to want to destroy him. The son who loves him ends up in jail for trying to bride a juror after his father winds up on the bank examiners wrong side. After doing 5 years in Sing Sing upon his release the other brothers try to destroy him.

A family auto-racing team, father and two sons, intent upon proving that their American vehicle is the superior to any foreign job. The trio enters an important Italian road competition. A press agent upsets things, when she can't choose between brothers.

Jimmy Ringo an ex-gunfighter tries to settle down to a normal life but is constantly challenged to gun fights. As he tries to reconnect with his wife and son in Cayenne, his life is in danger when several attempts are made on his life. Distraught he tells the sheriff his friend not to pursue the attempts, to let the gunnies find out themselves what kind of life it is to be an outlaw.

A mother places an ad in the newspaper claiming the innocence of her son. A reporter checks out the story.

A young Abe takes on a case where the only witness to the crime is the mother of two young men who are wrongfully accused in the stabbing death of the town deputy.

In Vaquero County at the Wells Fargo Office, Anse Trumbull is shot and killed in a bank hold up. This endangers the only witness to the crime, the sheriff's stepson. The sheriff is faced with a difficult decision whether to protect the boy and possibly lose his respect or risk the boys life.

During the time of the great Chicago fire, the two O'Leary brothers become bitter political and romantic rivals for the beautiful stage actress, one brother is a notorious gambler and the other a pious reformer. After Mrs. O'Leary's cow knocks over the fabled lantern, we are treated to generous stock footage from In Old Chicago's climatic conclusion.

Ben Macready son of John Macready owner and editor of the ""Hollisfield Herald"" has been asked by Police Chief Swanson to keep a lid on a kidnapping of Jimmie Elgin son of the Bank Manager George Elgin under wraps for 18 hours. Ben agrees, however his father doesnt and goes ahead with the story. The townspeople turn on Macready when it is learned that the river was dragged and a body was found. Fearing the worst, Macready embarks on a mission to capture the kidnapper. Offering him money for the story and trapping him only to discover that little Jimmie is alive and is exchanged for the reward. The police are able to arrest the kidnapper.

During the Civil War, imprisoned Confederate soldiers are paroled to help protect pioneers from Indians.

Retired schoolteacher pays a visit to a former pupil she taught many years ago. He is a candidate running for governor. She tells him about how difficult he was as a boy and her attempts to help him interfered with the man she loved and accusations concerning that man.

The ruthless head of an underwater demolition team, aka the frogmen, is unpopular with his men when he comes head to head with his chief petty officer just as an enemy torpedo lodges, unexploded, in a section of the ship's sick bay.

Police captain's daughter is threatened when a gangster resolves to make sure that the Captain and his family are held responsible.

A mischievous, well meaning, meddling busy body opens up an agency to bring couples together. After years of being a scorned woman Mae decides to turn the tables on her nemisis after her ex-husbands death. A variation of Hello Dolly!

An outlaw's son is torn between affection for his father and his own belief in law and order. While riding with the outlaw band, he is captured and imprisoned, and then learns the gang abandoned his wife to die, leaving his newborn son homeless. Furious, he turns against the gang and joins forces with the law.

John Hodges has been a printer devoted to his work. Now, at 65, he is automatically retired by his firm. But Hodges isn't ready for retirement -he feels he has many years of productivve employment ahead. Furthermore,life without a job becomes tedious. He feels unwanted in the house and finally flees to the park where he sits, contemplates the injustice of his retirement, and plots ways to be reinstated. Finally he hits on a daring maneuver. Knowing that the president of the parent company is a mysteriously remote figure, Hodges decides to impersonate him, change some of the rules and get his job back. Excited, he starts to compose an interesting letter!