A young music composer is having a hard struggle. Unknown to him, his wife writes stories which she offers to magazine editors. She is followed home by a wealthy man who feigns sympathy and offers her money (accidentally dropping his card), and is ordered out of the house by the indignant woman. The offering of the money was overheard by another occupant of the tenement, and he loses no time in informing the husband, who meanwhile has found the card. The wife sells a story and plans a surprise for her husband by laying in a stock of groceries and buying him a new overcoat. This makes the husband suspicious, and he starts out to find the man who dropped the card, having secured a good description. In the vicinity of the address given he meets the rake and follows him to the publishing office, where he sees his wife waiting, and is overjoyed to hear her bitterly and contemptuously arraign the man for the trouble he has caused. Ashamed and remorseful, he hurries home and finds a check awaiting him for an accepted opera. He, in turn, plans a surprise for his wife and prepares a repast for two. He dons the overcoat which he had refused to wear, and when she enters he begs forgiveness which she readily grants.
—Moving Picture World synopsis