Navy frogman, Ted Jackson (Elvis Presley), balances his time between twin careers as a deep sea diver and nightclub singer. During a dive, Ted spots sunken treasure and returns with hope to retrieve it.

Molly and Terry Donahue, plus their three children, are The Five Donahues. Son Tim meets hat-check girl Vicky and the family act begins to fall apart.

A mother (Marsha Hunt) wants her son (William Prince) to grow up to be a pianist good enough to play at Carnegie Hall but, when grown, the son prefers to play with Vaughan Monroe's orchestra. But Mama's wishes prevail and the son appears at Carnegie Hall as the composer-conductor-pianist of a modern horn concerto, with Harry James as the soloist. Frank McHugh is along as a Carnegie Hall porter and doorman, and Martha O'Driscoll is a singer who provides the love interest for Prince. Meanwhile and between while a brigade of classical music names from the 1940's (and earlier and later)appear; the conductors Walter Damrosch, Bruno Walter, Artur Rodzinski, Fritz Reiner and Leopold Stokowski; singers Rise Stevens, Lily Pons, Jan Peerce and Ezio Pinza, plus pianist Arthur Rubinstein, cellist Gregor Piatigorsky and violinist Jascha Heifetz.

Youthful Father Chuck O'Malley led a colorful life of sports, song, and romance before joining the Roman Catholic clergy, but his level gaze and twinkling eyes make it clear that he knows he made the right choice. After joining a parish, O'Malley's worldly knowledge helps him connect with a gang of kids looking for direction and handle the business details of the church-building fund, winning over his aging, conventional superior, Father Fitzgibbon.

Danny is a content truck driver, but his girl Peggy shows potential as a dancer and hopes he too can show ambition. Danny acquiesces and pursues boxing to please her, but the two begin to spend more time working than time together.

Dying Joan Ames meets criminal Dan Hardesty on a luxury liner as he is being transported back to America by policeman Steve Burke to face execution. Joan and Dan fall in love, their fates unbeknownst to one another.

Although loudmouthed braggart Jerry Plunkett alienates his comrades and officers, Father Duffy, the regimental chaplain, has faith that he'll prove himself in the end.

Embittered after serving time for a burglary he did not commit, Joe Bell is soon back in jail, on a prison farm. His love for the foreman's daughter leads to a fight between them, leading to the older man's death due to a weak heart. Joe and Mabel go on the run as he thinks no-one would believe a nobody like him.

Jerry and Cass have always been competitive. Now that Cass is a well respected Naval aviator like his father, Jerry leaves the submarine service to become a flying cadet with Class 61 at Pensacola. During training, Jerry meets and falls for Cass's fiancée Irene. After air sickness, jitters and a crash landing, Jerry gets his wings. Cass is not as lucky as he is crippled in a crash and must retire. Cass designs a new fighter for the Navy as Jerry pilots flying boats in San Diego. Jerry will do anything to show Cass that he is a better pilot, even if it means leaving the Navy to test the experimental fighter that killed test pilot Steve Conners.

Adam Lemp, the Dean of the Briarwood Music Foundation, has passed on his love of music to his four early adult daughters - Thea, Emma, Kay and Ann - who live with him and his sister, the girls' Aunt Etta, in the long time family home. Of the four, Kay has the greatest promise as a musical performer, specifically as a singer. Theirs is a loving family, however much the girls exasperate their father with their love of popular music, since he loves only the classics, most specifically Beethoven. The girls support each other however they can, but each is an individual with her own distinct personality and wants, including the type of man each wants as a husband. Practical but deep in her heart romantic Emma has long been courted by their next door neighbor, unassuming florist Ernest Talbot, and clever Thea wants to be Mrs. Ben Crowley, he a wealthy up and coming banker with prospects. Only the youngest, the fun loving Ann, states that she doesn't want to get married. Their collective lives change with the entry into their lives of two men. The first is Adam's old friend's son, popular music composer and conductor Felix Deitz, who easily gets a job at the foundation using his natural and sincere charm which he applies to all equally. Many women misconstrue that charm for romantic interest. The second is Felix's acquaintance, musician Mickey Borden, who he hires to orchestrate his latest composition. Mickey has a chip on his shoulders about what life has dealt him, which he uses in turn as a reason for living a reckless life. The two men make each of the four daughters reexamine what she thinks she wants in life, or more precisely who she wants, which for all may be the same person.

A meek salesman with an uncanny ability to pick horses is virtually kidnapped by a trio of gamblers.

Alan Tanner's new play opens in a week, but Tanner just can't finish the third act. He's retreated to a snowbound cottage to work, but blonde neighbor Pat Quinn wants to play. Producer Arthur Layton sends Alice, Alan's first wife, to help him stick to business. But then Daisy, his second wife, shows up wanting her alimony. Stranded with two wives, a girlfriend, and a jug of applejack, Alan still has to finish his play!

Loretta Dalrymple, a homely young country girl comes to New York City and gets a job as a chambermaid in a large hotel. She meets Ed Olson, a photographer out of work, and Dan Riley, a promoter with nothing to promote. When an advertiser offers a reward for a photograph of 'America's Prettiest Girl,", Ed makes a composite photo of all the famous movie stars and society belles and calls the girl in his picture "Dawn Glory." A Dawn-Glory craze sweeps the country, and Loretta, with makeup and new clothes, turns out to be the reincarnation of the picture. Loretta has fallen in love with a newspaper picture of "Bingo" Russell, a famous aviator, and when Dan and Ed ask her to pose as Dawn Glory, she readily agrees, hoping she will get to meet Russell. She does meet him and, then, complications arise.

In a luxury hotel stage director Nicoleff stages a show to get the money to pay his bills. Mrs. Prentiss, who is backing the show wants her daughter Ann to marry the millionaire T. Mosely Thorpe, but Ann falls in love with Dick Curtis, while Dick's girl friend marries Ann's brother Humbolt. But the hotel secretary Betty knows a way to avoid dificulties with old Mrs. Prentiss.

To get his girl back, that has fallen for a biker, a worker and one of his friends enter a six day race.

To continue a grudge with naval officer Biff Martin, feisty construction worker Chesty O'Connor joins the navy and manages to get stationed on the same ship as Martin. Further complications arise when O'Connor starts dating Martin's sister, whom he meets while on shore leave.

Three couples raise a ruckus when they travel to Nevada for quickie divorces.

Sherwood Nash is a swindler who bootlegs Paris fashions for sale at cut-rate prices. His assistant Lynn poses as An American interested in a dress and Snap conceals a camera in his cane. When they try to steal the latest Baroque designs hidden cameras capture them. Threat and counterthreat lead to the suggestion of putting on a legitimate show.

A vice-free radio singer wants to experience the dark side of life, so a press agent convinces her sponsor to choose a "professional sweetheart" from her fans.

A carnival magician deserts his wife when he finds out she's pregnant. She then marries the carnival's barker, but finds herself attracted to a young engineer.

In London, sculptor Ivan Igor struggles in vain to prevent his partner Worth from burning his wax museum...and his 'children.' Years later, Igor starts a new museum in New York, but his maimed hands confine him to directing lesser artists. People begin disappearing (including a corpse from the morgue); Igor takes a sinister interest in Charlotte Duncan, fiancée of his assistant Ralph, but arouses the suspicions of Charlotte's roommate, wisecracking reporter Florence.

A terminally ill woman and a debonair murderer facing execution meet and fall in love on a trans-Pacific crossing, each without knowing the other's secret.

Abandoned by her mother at a young age, Molly Louvain is seen as no good, but she dreams of living respectably with her sweetheart Jimmy, who has promised to marry her. When Molly arrives at Jimmy's house to finally meet his mother she is informed that both Jimmy and his mother have been called out-of-town suddenly and that the dinner has been canceled. Heartbroken and carrying Jimmy's unborn child, Molly takes to the road with Nicky Grant, a small-time crook from her past. A couple years pass and she leaves her daughter in the care of another woman. One night Jimmy and his college pals visit the dance hall where Molly works as a hostess. Jimmy and Molly are happy to see one another and catch up on old times. Drunk and jealous, Nicky orders Molly and Jimmy into a car he has stolen. When the police spot the car, Nicky fires some shots and runs into an alley, hitting an officer before being wounded himself. Molly drives off in the car with Jimmy. With a cop dead, the entire city is on the lookout for the brunette mystery girl who drove the getaway car. Molly dyes her hair blonde and moves with Jimmy into an inconspicuous apartment to lay low. Their neighbor is Scotty Cornell, a streetwise newspaperman. Soon the police learn Molly's name and suspect her of being the brains behind Nicky's whole gang. Jimmy wants Molly to go away with him and get married, but Scotty counters with an offer to take her to Paris for some laughs. Molly is torn between her desire to at last be respectable with Jimmy and her attraction to Scotty, who may be more "her type". Meanwhile Scotty hatches a plan to catch the fugitive Ms. Louvain by broadcasting that her daughter is gravely ill. Molly turns herself in to the police in order to help her child, but finds it is only a ruse. Scotty is shocked to learn that the mystery woman he set the trap for is his own Molly. Touched by her maternal devotion, he recognizes that she is not the tramp he took her for and promises to drum up enough support in the press to keep her out of jail.

Hildy Johnson, newspaper reporter, is engaged to Peggy Grant and planning to move to New York for a higher paying advertising job. The court press room is full of lame reporters who invent stories as much as write them. All are waiting to cover the hanging of Earl Williams. When Williams escapes from the inept Sheriff, Hildy seizes the opportunity by using his $260 honeymoon money to payoff an insider and get the scoop on the escape. However, Walter Burns, the Post's editor, is slow to repay Hildy back, hoping that he will stay on the story. Getting a major scoop looks possible when Hildy stumbles onto the bewildered escapee and hides him in a roll-top desk in the press room. Burns shows up to help. Can they keep Williams' whereabouts secret long enough to get the scoop, especially with the Sheriff and other reporters hovering around?

World War I ace Dick Courtney derides the leadership of his superior officer, but Courtney is soon promoted to squadron commander and learns harsh lessons about sending subordinates to their deaths.