Tis a dark and stormy night when mousey Ambrose Applejohn's (John Halliday) Aunt Agatha (Louise Closser Hale) discovers he's put the estate up for sale in a local magazine. Much to the dismay of his doting ward, Poppy Faire (Mary Brian), Ambrose is determined to go globetrotting in search of high adventure and low villainy to defeat. A series of sudden knocks at the door amidst the raging storm proves Ambrose's travel plans premature as heroic, pulpy thrills walk through the door in the persons of alluring Russian noblewoman Anna Valeska (Kay Strozzi); villainous spy Ivan Borolsky (Arthur Edmund Carewe); circus psychic Horace Pengard (Otto Hoffman) and his wife, Kate (Julia Swayne Gordon); Ambrose's attorney John Jason (Claud Allister); and the police! It appears the Applejohn estate harbors a deep secret the hidden treasure of Ambrose's ancestor, the pirate Captain Applejack!