Arturo Bocetti is the first violin of a theater orchestra. He has been married but a short time and lives most happily. The two are seen together in their music room. A letter comes addressed to Arturo. He is terrified to find it is from a gang of black-handers, who demand $200. Unless he gives it to them, they write, they will kill his wife. Arturo takes $200 from their scant horde, and leaves to comply with the blackmailers’ demands. Marie, already suspicious, finds the money gone and decides the letter was from a woman and that Arturo took the money to spend upon her. She writes a note to Beatrice Fairfax. Beatrice receives the letter just as Jimmy Barton, the star reporter on the paper, is given an assignment to hunt down a gang of black-handers, because he “knows their lingo.” She hurries to Marie while Jimmy, disguising himself as an Italian, is soon with the gang. Meantime. Arturo changes his mind and decides to notify the police. At the station house door he is warned that he will be killed, too, unless he complies. Several days pass. The den of the black-handers is shown. Two of them are making a bomb with which they intend to blow up Arturo’s house, unless the money is paid. Jimmy, in his disguise, is playing poker with other members of the gang. Suddenly his coat sleeve is pulled back. It reveals an arm, white as a woman’s, with the hand stained brown. The gang is upon him, but Jimmy seizes the newly-finished bomb. The gang flees. They decide to act quick. The theatre is about to let out, and they wait for Arturo as he leaves the stage door. Marie, angered by Arturo’s evasiveness, has summoned Beatrice, and they, too, wait at the stage door to see what he is doing. As he leaves Arturo is handed another note from the black-handers, telling him to leave the money in the cup of a blind man on the corner, really one of their gang. Arturo drops the note and hurries away to comply. Marie springs out, picks up the note and she and Beatrice read it. Then Marie realizes how cruelly she has misjudged him. They hurry after Arturo, with the black-handers following them. Before the two women can prevent it, Arturo places the money in the blind man’s cup. Beatrice and Marie reach the blind man a second before the black-handers and grab the money. Their cries bring back Arturo. Beatrice, Marie and Arturo dash in the hallway, up a flight of stairs and into a photograph gallery, whose owner has just stepped out. They barricade themselves in. The black-handers, unable to open the door, rush to the rood and drop down through the skylight. Unnoticed, Jimmy still in his disguise has joined them. The gang is fast overpowering Beatrice, Marie and Arturo, when Jimmy, with the bomb in his hand appears. The black-handers are terror-stricken at sight of the deadly tube and gladly surrender, just as the police arrive. Jimmy has a difficult time explaining his identity, but Beatrice finally recognizes him. Marie falls weeping on her husband’s breast, declaring that had it not been for the advice of Beatrice Fairfax her whole life would have been wrecked.