Hamilton, a victim of paralysis and owner of a menagerie where animals can be bought, sold and exchanged, has a superintendent under his employ who is in love with his elder daughter, Grace. She loves him, too, but unknown to her father. One day while putting an animal through some stunts the trainer is caught and Hamilton is taken with a stroke at the sight, this being his second attack. He realizes that the next attack will probably mean his end, and he thinks, too, that by selling he will rid his daughter of the superintendent. He sells the menagerie, but keeps his pet animal, a wild and vicious lion, which he takes to his private residence and places in a barn. Some time later his little daughter, Blanche, is playing around the grounds of his home when young George, the superintendent, happens to spy her and asks her to take a note to her sister unknown to her father. Blanche consents, but in trying to deliver the message, she is stopped by her father, who takes it from her. The father is very angry. He locks Grace in her room and the mother, going on a visit, takes Blanche with her, leaving her with her aunt, who lives a short distance away. The father then decides that he will have the animal meet George that night, instead of his daughter, thinking that that will keep the superintendent away for good. He then turns the animal loose and waits for the arrival of George, but in the meantime Blanche runs away from the aunt’s and arrives home and is confronted by he animal. Father, seeing this from the window, is attacked with the third stroke of paralysis. George arrives in time to save little Blanche’s life. Grace breaks away from her room, helps rescue her little sister, while her mother tends to her father. Between George and Grace they manage to fight the animal back into the barn. They return to the house and all are reconciled.