Harold Meadows (Lloyd) is a tailor's apprentice for his uncle in Little Bend, California. He is so shy around women that he can barely speak to them (to stop his stuttering, his uncle has to blow a whistle). Despite this, Harold writes a "how to" book for young men entitled "The Secret of Making Love", detailing how to woo different types of young women, such as "the vampire" and "the flapper" (in scenes that parodied two other popular films of the time, "Trifling Women" and "Flaming Youth"), and takes a train to see a publisher in Los Angeles.