Four friends, Bob Bailey, Tom Martin, Smudge Casey and Fred Harper, are certain that upon their graduation from college, they will conquer the world.  They face disappointment when they look for jobs, however.  Because of the Depression, jobs are scarce and each one has many applicants.  Fred goes to work for his father, a prominent stockbroker.  Eventually Bob, who intends to become a journalist, manages to sell occasional articles to the newspaper, and Tom also finds work.  Smudge, a star athlete, unsuccessfully looks for work as a coach.

Tom is in love with Trudy Talbot, who moves to New York to be near him.  She shares a room with Susan Merrill, a librarian.  Tom invites Bob to double date with him and Trudy, hoping that he will become interested in Susan, but Bob is in love with Fred's sister Joan, even though they are of different social classes.  When Bob attends a boxing match on assignment from the paper, he sees Smudge fighting for a few dollars.  Realizing that Smudge is broke, Susan and Bob invite him for Sunday breakfast.

Soon Susan and Smudge fall in love.  Shortly after, Tom and Trudy marry, as do Susan and Smudge.  Joan and Bob date despite her mother's wishes that she only go out with men of her class.  Smudge is fired from his job as a truck driver because there is not enough work and Susan loses her job because she is married.

Meanwhile, Tom and Trudy have a baby.  Mr.  Harper, Joan's father, is implicated in a trust failure and kills himself, leaving his family in reduced circumstances.  For this reason, Joan decides to accept a proposal from wealthy Stephen Hornblow, even though she is in love with Bob.  Completely desperate, Smudge robs a pawnshop of ten dollars in order to buy food and he is shot running away.  Bob keeps his identity out of the papers and Susan returns to her parents.  When Joan meets Bob at Tom and Trudy's, where they have gone to visit the new baby, she confesses that she is not going to give up her life to support her family.  Instead she will follow her heart and marry Bob.