Gladys Willing, a simple village maid, lives with her mother, Mrs. Vera Willing, a comely widow, in their modest rose covered cottage. Manly Fellows, the young and stalwart village blacksmith, is in love with Gladys, but Vilas Canby, a wealthy villain of the deepest dye, has sworn that the maiden shall be his. Canby abducts the maiden and takes her to a hut in the woods. Manly Fellows goes to the rescue and saves her. He saves her several times, from a railroad engine, from imminent death on the railroad track where she has been tied, from a den of lions and from other perilous positions where the villain has placed her to compel her to become his bride. Manly Fellows becomes practically an invalid, because of his strenuous duties as a hero. So, when the villain again abducts Gladys, the manly hero declines to commit further acts of heroism and marries the dashing widow instead of the charming daughter. Then Gladys marries the villain.
—Moving Picture World synopsis