Basement

Marion Clark, a manicurist, is unimpressed by the wealthy but dissipated men who frequent her shop, preferring city editor Dick Strong, who lives in her boardinghouse. Dick's sister Gladys, however, is intrigued by the wilder side of life in New York and allows one of the boarders to take her to a lively party. There Gladys meets and becomes infatuated with Malcolm Dunn, a dissolute businessman who neglects his wife Margaret. When Gladys realizes that she is pregnant, she turns to Marion for advice. Outraged, Marion sends for Malcolm, not knowing that his wife has hired detectives to follow him. The detectives find Malcolm in Marion's apartment, and Margaret sues him for divorce, naming Marion as the correspondent. In order to protect Gladys, Marion remains silent, but in the end, the truth is revealed, and Marion wins Dick.

A boyfriend, Lee, learns a lesson about his girlfriend, Denise, after listening to lots of advice one particular night. First from his best friend at a bar, and then the demons on his shoulders come to life on the way home. What direction is Lee going?

The "people among us" are Berlin building tenants, a cross section of late 20s society.Among them: a government assessor and his wife,who gives birth while in prison, and a flighty landlady who is swindled by a diamond seller.

A small town postal official allows a military officer to take his lovely daughter away to St. Petersburg, assuming the man will do the right thing and marry her.Instead, a future of scandal and tragedy await her.