Jo Bradley, a young author, is in love with Nellie Armstrong, daughter of Col. Armstrong, who is affected with heart disease. The Colonel desires Nellie to marry Robert Joffrey, an unprincipled lawyer, but Nellie loves Jo. Joffrey conspires with his friend Clara, a woman of shady reputation, to ensnare Nellie in a plot in which he plans to rescue her from a threatened scandal on condition that she marry him. Clara inveigles Nellie to her room on pretense of illness, slips a locket into Nellie's pocket and then accuses her of theft, threatening to call the police. Jo, however, comes to her rescue and takes her home. The Colonel is grateful to Jo for his act and finally concludes that he is the fellow for Nellie to marry. Seized with an attack of heart failure, he hastily writes a note: "Marry Jo. It is my dying wish." Then he dies. Joffrey comes in, discovers the note and changes it to read "Marry Joffrey." Nellie finds the note and decides to accede to her father's wish and marry Joffrey. Jo suspects trickery and on looking at the blotter on the Colonel's table finds proof of Joffrey's perfidy. He confronts the lawyer; a fight follows and Jo forces him to confess.