Two stories from the master of the surprise ending.

In "Elsie in New York", Elsie is an innocent young woman who, upon the death of her father, must look for work to make a living. Her father expected her to trust to the good-heartedness of his previous employer, but Elsie prefers to make her own way in life. Although she visits an employment agency and applies for several positions, do-gooders interfere. Thinking they are saving her soul, in actuality they point her toward destruction.

In "The Purple Dress", two young women clerks have been saving money all year to buy new dresses for an annual gala, the Thanksgiving dinner given by their employer. Both are hoping to catch the eye of a certain attractive bachelor at the party. But interactions with a landlady and a dressmaker intervene, and things turn out much differently than either girl could have imagined.