Girl Shy finds Harold Lloyd exactly that, a poor kid who works in a tailor shop and can't get a date even with the object of his affections, Jobyna Ralston. To pass the time of day Harold writes a diary about how to get different types of women (talk about fantasizing). Some of the chapters are played out in imaginary sequences.
Jobyna is eventually driven into the arms of Carlton Griffin who's a villain in the best Snidely Whiplash tradition. In the meantime a publisher whom he sends the book to rejects it, but later changes his mind when he finds his staff roaring with laughter over Harold's described romantic technique. He releases it as a comedic book and sends him $3000.00. By the way a very funny sequence happens when Lloyd initially thinking it was another rejection letter tears it up and then sees the torn check. Piecing it together like a jigsaw puzzle with his employer at the tailor shop, the zeroes start adding up as his facial expressions change. For that amount of money he'll stand a little humiliation.
Of course the whole idea is a reworking of Merton Of The Movies where the protagonist thinks he's a great dramatic actor, but in fact his scenes are being filmed for comedy. Still why not copy a good thing.
In the end he discovers that his true love Jobyna is about to marry a bigamist. At that point the last half hour is devoted to a madcap chase with the resourceful Lloyd using every means at his disposal to to get him to the church on time and save Jobyna from a fate worse than death. Best scene is him commandeering a streetcar for part of this chase and hanging on to the rod used to connect it to the overhead cable. Lloyd did a lot of these himself, he was known for his daredevil escapades, it's what his fans expected.
Girl Shy is a great example of the comedy of Harold Lloyd who in real life was anything, but Girl Shy.