Victorian melodrama is sent up in this spoof of the old production "The Drunkard; or, The Fallen Saved." Dastardly villain Silas Cribbs schemes to get his lusty clutches on the virtuous heroine by driving her naïve husband to alcoholic ruin. Luckily, a temperance lecturer is on hand to set things straight, as is Buster Keaton as William Dalton, the drunkard's friend.