Mary, however, hears about the wager and thoroughly disgusted with Bill, leaves college and goes to China to join her missionary father (Alfred Fisher).

When the Chinese revolutionary, Fu Shing (Warner Oland), kidnaps Mary, Bill has to figure out how to save her.

He enlists the help of his friend, Danny Daynes (Raymond Hatton), an alcoholic war veteran now serving as a general in the Chinese army.

The plot of The Fighting American was a romantic satire penned by William Elwell Oliver, the winner of a writing contest that Universal Studios held for college students.

The review noted: "In the introductory title of "The Fighting American," the film presentation at the Broadway this week, Carl Laemmle, President of Universal Pictures Corporation, explains that the production is not one to tax the mentality of the spectators, who must look upon the narrative as nonsense.