Morning glory: A small-town community-theatre actress comes to New York dreaming of theatrical stardom. She amuses a producer and a playwright with her naiviete. Partly out of sympathy, the playwright arranges for her to understudy a troublesome theatrical star. When the star walks out on opening night, the young actress goes on to triumphant success. She is warned not to let it go to her head or become a "morning glory": a briefly spectacular "bloomer" that withers and dies within a very short time.

Without love: A devoted scientist meets a widow who seems to share his distaste of romantic love. The widow proposes marriage, insisting that theirs should be a union uncomplicated by love, and the scientist readily agrees. However, when the scientist's former girlfriend turns up, his wife discovers that she has fallen in love with him after all and attempts to win him back.

Dragon seed: A peaceful Chinese village is invaded by the Japanese prior to WWII. The villagers adapt to the situation, all except one headstrong young woman who decides to stand up to the Japanese whether her husband approves or not. She learns to read and to handle a weapon so that she may be properly equipped to wage both psychological and physical combat.

Undercurrent: A woman discovers that her new husband has a mysterious brother he refuses to discuss. She be obsessed over the missing brother, especially after a chance encounter with a young woman who figures in the lives of both brothers. The woman feels compelled to solve the mystery, until she discovers that her husband may very well have murdered his own brother.

Sylvia Scarlett: A woman disguises herself as a man in order to help her father smuggle some expensive lace onboard a ship bound from France to England. The father drunkenly confesses their scheme to a jewel smuggler, who uses the information to escape customs authorities. Later, when the woman confronts the jewel smuggler, he offers to cut them in on a scheme to steal jewels from a wealthy family. When they are invited to a wealthy artist's mansion, she displays an unsettling interest in the artist until he discovers that she's a woman.

The corn is green: A strong-willed schoolteacher guides an illiterate Welsh teenager towards becoming an honor student.