Malcolm loves Ellen and hopes to marry her. She has romantic notions, however, and marries Walter, a stranger in the village. She is disowned by her father, who dies shortly after. Years elapse and Ellen dies, leaving the boy, Jerry. Jerry is forced by his dissolute father to beg on the streets. Sometime later he is found doing this by Malcolm, who has come to the city. Jerry takes the boy to a café and is about to feed him, when, observing his father through the window, the boy makes a hurried exit. Walter and his companions, believing Malcolm has money, plan to rob him, and, with this purpose in mind, lure him into a low saloon. Jerry, always in the background, observes the movements of his father and companions and after Malcolm has been drugged, manages to get him out of the place and into Malcolm's wagon. The horses, once in the country, guide the way home. When the drugged man awakens he finds himself in front of his own home. Jerry is taken in. On the mantel shelf he sees a picture of his dead mother. While Malcolm is out, Jerry falls asleep with the picture hugged to his breast. Malcolm finds him, and after a few questions discovers that the boy is the son of his old sweetheart, and that he has been rescued from the clutches of the scoundrel who married her.