During America’s Civil War, Union spies steal engineer Johnny Gray's beloved locomotive, 'The General'—with Johnnie's lady love aboard an attached boxcar—and he single-handedly must do all in his power to both get The General back and to rescue Annabelle.

Buster and Phyllis endure a number of outdoor adventures trying to prove to each other their survival skills. The balloon, which lands Buster in the wilderness, later proves useful as their canoe is about go over a waterfall.

When Keaton is rejected by his girl friend, he sets out in a small boat seeking forgetfulness. His troubles increase, however, when he takes refuge on a whaling ship. He quickly incurs the wrath of the despotic ship's captain. Making his escape, Buster next encounters a large flotation device which he does not recognize as a target for nautical maneuvers. It is blown to smithereens and Buster wakes up from a dream. We realize the whole story has been a dream. And Buster, to his consternation, discovers his own small boat has never left the dock. Color: Black and White Sound Mix: Silent

Newlyweds receive a build-it-yourself house as a wedding gift—and the house can, supposedly, be built in "one week". A rejected suitor secretly re-numbers packing crates, and the husband struggles to assemble the house according to this new 'arrangement' of its parts.

A film projectionist longs to be a detective, and puts his meagre skills to work when he is framed by a rival for stealing his girlfriend's father's pocketwatch.