Charles "Chick" Miller (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) is a hobo released from jail for vagrancy, along with fellow drifter "Scrap Iron" Scratch (Guy Kibbee). The two men then head to the local railroad station "to catch a train out of town". Through a series of chance encounters with travelers in the main terminal of Union Depot, Chick becomes, in his own words, a "Gentleman for a Day" (the name under which the film was released in the United Kingdom).