A man hires a crook to kill his father, then betrays him and abducts the crook's daughter.

Paul Meredith, the son of a wealthy manufacturer, forges his father's name to borrow money. The father finds out and disowns his son. In an attempt to get even, Paul recruits a discharged worker, Joe Prescott, to rob his father's house, but the father is killed in the robbery. Joe sends his daughter to Paul for help, but instead Paul locks her up and, by testifying against him, has Joe convicted of the murder. The girl manages to get a message to her father by throwing a note out of her window as a chaplain is passing by. When he gets the note, Joe breaks out of jail and rescues her.—Anonymous

Paul Meredith is the profligate son of John Meredith, a splendid example of one of England's fine old merchant princes. Paul, who is a thorough young scoundrel, has been forging his father's name to certain bills, and is being pressed by a moneylender named Rossiter for payment. He is unable to meet the bills, whereupon Rossiter declares that he must inform his father and seek payment from him. He puts his threat into execution, and arrives at John Meredith's house on the anniversary of his silver wedding. As he had anticipated, the old man pays the bills rather than his name should be dishonored. Paul, arriving on the scene shortly afterwards, is informed by his father what has happened. His father bauds him a check for twenty-five hundred dollars and tells him that it is the last money he will ever receive from him. Paul leaves his father's presence mad with rage, and plots with a discharged workman, Joe Prescott, who has a grudge against his father, that he shall break into the house and rob the safe. The man agrees, but in accomplishing his object he encounters Mr. Meredith, and kills the old man in the course of the struggle which ensues. He then writes a letter to Paul, who is in London, sending him the jewels and begging him for a thousand dollars in order that he may get clear of the country. The only messenger he can trust with this letter is his own daughter, Nan, who, much against her will, undertakes the mission for her father. Paul, who has seen Nan before and has become enamored with her, has the girl detained and locked in a bedroom in his house. In the meantime Joe Prescott has been arrested for the murder and is convicted chiefly on the evidence supplied by Paul. While all this has been going on. Nan's lover, Jack Raynor, the foreman of John Meredith's iron works, has been searching for her. Suspecting that Paul has a hand in her disappearance, he goes to London. Nan is not content to patiently wait Paul's pleasure, and she writes an appeal upon her handkerchief, saying where she is confined and begging someone to come to her assistance as her father, Joe Prescott, is in prison and unable to assist her. The message falls into the hands of the chaplain of the prison where Joe is confined, and he shows it to him in order to find out if it is likely to be true. The knowledge of Paul's double treachery so enrages Joe that he resolves to be free at any cost in order to punish the traitor and liberate his daughter. One evening he strikes down the ward keeper who comes to bring him his food and, dressing himself in his clothes, manages to make his escape. Reaching Paul's house he bursts his way in and attacks him. A terrible struggle follows. Eventually Prescott seizes a heavy table and, bringing it down with tremendous force on Paul's head, dashes his brains out. He has scarcely reached his daughter's room when the police rush in, headed by Jack Raynor, and Prescott is led back to prison to suffer the penalty of his crimes, with the satisfaction, however, that he has revenged himself on the traitor who sent him to his doom and would have at the same time betrayed his daughter, while Nan is left in the arms of her sweetheart.—Moving Picture World synopsis