A male hustler drifts into Key West, where he becomes involved in a series of steamy interludes with disreputable locals intertwined in various political intrigues.

Ralph and Annabell Willart are a feuding couple who are constantly bickering over their worthless, good-for-nothing son Berry-Berry. When Berry-Berry begins yet another meaningless love affair, this time with an older woman named Echo O’Brien, he really gets his parents at each others’ throats.

Norma Rae is a southern textile worker employed in a factory with intolerable working conditions. This concern about the situation gives her the gumption to be the key associate to a visiting labor union organizer. Together, they undertake the difficult, and possibly dangerous, struggle to unionize her factory.

In the Salinas Valley in and around World War I, Cal Trask feels he must compete against overwhelming odds with his brother for the love of their father. Cal is frustrated at every turn, from his reaction to the war, how to get ahead in business and in life, and how to relate to his estranged mother.

When Amalia Balash starts working alongside Georg Nowack at Mr. Maraczek's Parfumerie, the two argue endlessly, while unknowingly writing loving words to each other as a part of an anonymous "dear friend" romantic pen pal service. When Georg finds out who his "dear friend" has been, he looks at their relationship and realizes all that animosity he thought he felt may have been nothing less than love in disguise.

Ernest Findlater dreams about a South Sea island and a girl he meets there named Lalage. Lalage develops a scheme to help Findlater kill his real life wife. On the night of the planned murder, Findlater discovers that his wife is already dead. She died of natural causes.