Having read horror stories about wicked stepmothers, the gang is determined to break up the marriage between Darla Hood's widowed father and his new bride. Never bothering to find out, as Darla has, that the second Mrs. Hood is a wonderful woman, the kids pull off all sorts of pranks at the wedding ceremony, from playing the radio too loud to releasing a cylinder of laughing gas. The wedding guests start smiling then laughing as the gas fills the room. Someone in the building discovers what they're doing and shuts off the canister. The wedding is temporarily postponed and the gang is sentenced to a spanking, assembly-line style.
De retour d'Orient la jeune Ann Carrington se rend en taxi au manoir de son père qu'elle ne connait pas en compagnie de son amie Gail Richards. En chemin un mystérieux tireur embusqué fait éclater les pneus du taxi qui verse dans le fossé. Personne n'est blessé, mais le chauffeur de taxi laisse les deux jeunes femmes pendant qu'il s'en va chercher des secours. Celui-ci tardant à revenir, ils se font prendre (pratiquement de force) en stop par Topper et son chauffeur. Arrivé au manoir le médecin de famille met en garde Ann sur le fait que son père n'en a plus pour longtemps et qu'il ne fait pas le fatiguer. L'aspect morgue et lugubre des gens de maison de Carrington les amuse plutôt qu'autre chose, mais en passant sous un immense plafonnier celui-ci se dégringole et manque de justesse de s'écraser sur Ann. Les deux jeunes femmes sont logées dans de luxueuses chambres mais par caprice se les échangent. La nuit un mystérieux personnage pénètre dans la chambre d'Ann (qui n'y est donc pas) et poignarde à mort Gail. Le fantôme de Gail se détache de son corps et se rend chez Topper en l'obligeant à l'aider à retrouver son assassin. Le chauffeur de ce dernier qui les a accompagnés est terrorisé par le personnage invisible de Gail qui laisse des traces de pas sur le sol enneigé, prend la fuite et retourne chez ses maîtres. Madame Topper l'interroge et scandalisée par cette escapade nocturne de son mari s'en va à son tour chez les Carrington avec sa bonne et son chauffeur. Chez les Carrington, Gail et Topper retrouvent le corps assassiné, mais ce dernier se fait surprendre, finit par parler d'un cadavre, mais celui-ci vient de disparaître. Il s'ensuit un impressionnant et long chassé-croisé de tous ces personnages qui se croisent, se cachent, disparaissent, reviennent et passent par des passages secrets, d'autant qu'il faut maintenant y ajouter le chauffeur de taxi revenu toucher le prix de sa course et l'inspecteur de police accompagné de policiers. Le chauffeur de Topper disparaît dans une trappe, tombe dans un égout et voit des mystérieux personnages embarquer le cadavre de Gail. Finalement Topper arrivera à confondre l'assassin qui n'est autre que la personne qui se faisait passer pour le père d'Ann, (avec la complicité de la bonne) il prendra la fuite poursuivi en voiture par le fantôme de Gail et victime d'un accident il deviendra fantôme à son tour.
George Pearson, an employee at an underwear factory, is caught between his modern wife and his meddling mother. After buying a special yarn and getting his wife to promote it, he has an argument with his boss, Mr Dawson who insults Pearson's wife and refuses to apologise. Pearson then resigns. After finding out that the yarn is actually worth a fair amount, Mr Dawson tries to buy it from Pearson but he has some competition.
Mary Howard (Joan Crawford) is a novelist with advanced ideas about love and marriage, and is in love with her publisher, Rogers Woodruff (Herbert Marshall). She decides the only logical thing to do is to lure him away from his wife and marry him. Mary's friend, Jimmy (Robert Taylor), however, is convinced he's the right man for her and pursues her. He sees through her rationalizations and wrong-thinking and decides to throw Mary and Woodruff's wife Claire (Greer Garson) together at the house of a friend (Spring Byington). The two women do not know each other, but during their chats Mary appreciates and respects Claire's maturity and wisdom. When Mary learns Woodruff is a philandering womanizer of long standing, she realizes she cannot love him and welcomes Jimmy's attentions.
Wally Benton (Red Skelton) is the star of a mystery series on radio, The Fox, which he writes himself, inventing for each episode a crime that has "only one loophole" so the criminal can be caught. He is about to elope with Carol Lambert (Ann Rutherford), but his agent (Eve Arden) tells him he must go out with the sponsor's daughter, Fran Post (Virginia Grey), or risk his show being canceled.
A dancer named Marie-Luise Pally (Marika Rökk) is sent on a diplomatic mission to the Frankfurt Parliament in an attempt to stop her uncle's casino in Homburg shutting down. The film is set in the German revolutions of 1848–49.
To raise money for the local chapter of the Red Cross, the gang stages an old-fashioned minstrel show with the help of Froggy's uncle, played by real-life minstrel man Walter Wills. The show is a success, netting the Red Cross a munificent $208.40.
Grace Hayes, as herself essentially, Grace Hayes, has been content to play the vaudeville circuit, and support her son, and the wealthy family who shunned her.
After a brief history on the many different forms of manly arts through the years, Goofy demonstrates the different methods of boxing, as well as punching the bag and shadow boxing - literally - until finally he feels ready for the boxing ring.
Famous Hollywood actor Don Bolton (Hope) is a vain movie star whose biggest fear is to be drafted into the US Army. He definitely lacks the qualities of a good soldier, and he is so afraid of loud noise that he would not last a day in the service, let alone cope with hearing a single gunshot when he is on set shooting a war film at the studio. Colonel Peter Fairbanks (Clarence Kolb) visits the studio set as a consultant for the war film, and with him he has brought his beautiful daughter Antoinett, known as "Tony" (Dorothy Lamour). Don is smitten by Tony, and also realizes that his ticket out of the Army is to marry the colonel’s daughter to avoid the draft.
When wealthy newspaper publisher Judson M. Blair (Edward Arnold) divorces his wife Adele (Mary Beth Hughes), Judge Cornelia C. Porter (Rosalind Russell) awards Adele alimony of $4000 a month for five years or until she remarries. After learning from his lawyer, Northcott (Thurston Hall), that Porter refuses to hear an appeal, the furious Blair tries using his influence with her boss, Judge Graham (Guy Kibbee), to have her transferred, but to no avail.
Ted Scott (Payne) is a band pianist whose publicity manager decides that, for good press, the band should adopt a foreign refugee. The band goes to Ellis Island to meet the girl and soon discovers that the refugee isn't a 10-year-old child, but a young woman, Karen Benson (Henie). The surprise comes right before the band is to travel to Sun Valley, Idaho for a Christmas gig. While on the ski slopes Ted soon falls for Karen's inventive schemes to win the heart of her new sponsor, much to the chagrin of his girlfriend, Vivian Dawn (Bari), a soloist with the band. Vivian promptly quits the band out of jealousy, and Karen stages an elaborate ice show as a substitute.