Michael Howland, a stern hanging judge, is assigned to take over a chaotic prison. There Michael imposes a strict regime of discipline on the inmates. He is similarly rigid and harsh with his own two children Tommie and Anne. However, his son Tommie Howland eventually ends up incarcerated in his father's prison.

A precocious youngster organizes a show to save a government youth camp from a local entrepreneur.

A girl from the wrong side of the tracks is torn between true love and a life of sin.

A circus wild animal trainer searches for the son who was taken away from him by a meddling relative years earlier.

Not-so-smart chatterbox Dulcy Parker does and says all the wrong things, but they right themselves to prove she's not so dumb after all.

Virginia, who studies at a boarding school for upper-class girls, falls in love with a medical intern who works as a waiter for a living. Both the director of the school and her mother oppose such a relationship.

In the pre-Civil War New Orleans, roguish Irish gambler Stephen Fox (Rex Harrison) buys his way into society--something he couldn't do in his homeland because he is illegitimate.