Barbanas Barty inherits some money, sets off to London, meets and falls in love with Lady Cleone Meredith, and this does not set well with Sir Mortiner Carnaby, who has eyes on the fair lady himself. Barnaby becomes friend with Viscount Devehon, buys a horse from him and enters it in the big steeplechase. Sir Mortimer takes steps to rid society of the presence of this non-gentleman.

In Renaissance Florence, a Florentine trader meets a shipwrecked stranger, who introduces himself as Tito Melema, a young Italianate-Greek scholar. Tito becomes acquainted with several other Florentines, including Nello the barber and a young girl named Tessa. He is also introduced to a blind scholar named Bardo de' Bardi, and his daughter Romola. As Tito becomes settled in Florence, assisting Bardo with classical studies, he falls in love with Romola.

Two men who bear a striking resemblance to each befriend each other while stationed in France during WWI. One is fatally fatally wounded and requests makes a dying request to his doppelganger to take on his identity.

Daniel Boone Brown is a pleasure-seeking playboy carousing around New York City without a care in the world -- that is, until he becomes the unwitting subject of a series of experiments at the hands of a sadistic psychiatrist. Through various means of control, the mad scientist drives Daniel to think he's losing his mind, but ultimately introduces him to the lovely Lucette.