When she was a baby, Patsy Smith's father quarreled with his wife and kidnapped Patsy. After her father died at sea, Captain Barnaby took Patsy to Mrs. Duff's boardinghouse for seafarers. Dissatisfied with drudgery, Patsy, inspired by Barnaby's tales of Aladdin, searches for her father's Oriental lamp which Mrs. Duff sold to a junk peddler. Patsy buys the lamp and after rubbing it, the Genie Jehaunarara appears. He beautifies her room, restores Barnaby's leg, and turns Mrs. Duff into a rag doll. Because love is beyond his magic, however, the Genie cannot reunite Patsy with her mother. At a masquerade ball, when the Genie's costume wins first prize, Patsy's applause unwittingly causes him to disappear. Clad only in her underwear, Patsy runs to her mother, and awakens from a dream. Disheartened, she throws the lamp out the window, and it nearly strikes her friend Harry, a grocer's boy who wants to become a lawyer, and then, like Lincoln, president. From letters found in the lamp, they locate Patsy's mother, who arrives with her brother, a distinguished judge. Taken under his wing, Harry now imagines himself president with Patsy as his first lady.
"Patsy" Smith is a little drudge in Mrs. Dud's boarding house for sea-fearing men, called "The Fishermen's Rest." Captain Barnaby brought her there when she was a tiny girl. Her father. who had quarreled with her mother, had kidnapped little Patricia, and taken her away on Captain Barnaby's boat. He died before reaching his destination, so the old "sea salt" had taken the little girl in charge. Having retired from active work, the captain is no longer able to pay for her lodging, so she is obliged to work for Mrs. Duff. Harry Hardy, the grocer's boy, is her friend. He is studying to be a lawyer, and is sure that someday he will occupy the White House, and that little Patsy will be with him as the "first lady of the land." Captain Barnaby tells Patsy the story of Aladdin and his wonderful lamp and leads her to believe that the lamp is in the village. Patsy's one thought is to find it and wish for her mother. An old trunk belonging to Patsy has been sold by Mrs. Duff to a junk-peddler, to pay for the visits of the doctor when the girl was sick. The trunk contained some relics, of which Mrs. Duff did not realize the value. Among them was an Oriental lamp of peculiar design. In her wanderings around the village Patsy finds this lamp, which the junk-peddler tells her once belonged to Aladdin. It takes all the money she has in her savings bank to buy back the lamp. She takes it home, and rubs it and wishes. The Genie Jehaunarar appears. Patsy cannot pronounce his name, so she calls him "Jennie." He transforms the room into a thing of beauty, gives Captain Barnaby a good leg instead of his wooden one and changes Mrs. Duff into a rag doll. But he cannot give Patsy her mother, because love, the greatest thing in the world, is beyond his magic power. Patsy wants to consult Harry Hardy about it, and they follow him to a masquerade ball. All three of them have beautiful costumes, the gift of the Genie, but it is the Genie who wins the prize for the best costume. He is much disgusted because the prize is a wristwatch. Everyone applauds, and Patsy forgets and claps four times, the signal which makes the Genie disappear forever. Patsy finds herself in the midst of the gorgeous assembly clad in her little night drawers. She runs out into the garden to cry and a beautiful lady comes to comfort her, her mother. Patsy reaches out her arms, and wakes up. She takes the "wonderful lamp" and throws it out of the window. It nearly hits Harry Hardy, who is passing by. Some papers and trinkets fall out and while he is picking them up Patsy runs downstairs to join him. Together they read the letters contained in the old lamp, and find her mother's address. They send a telegram, from which Harry has to pay, as Patsy has spent all her money for the lamp. Patsy's mother, with her brother, Judge Lawrence, arrive on the next train. They take the girl to the home that is rightfully hers, and Harry goes too, to study with the Judge and become a lawyer. He sees his vision of the White House, with Patsy by his side, as the first lady of the land, becoming a possibility. Happiness has at last been brought about by the lamp.
