Pete Meadows longs to become an actor. LeGrade, proprietor of a hotel where Pete stops, gives Pete one more day in which to pay much past due rent. Pete escapes, with his baggage through the window, the shock causing the violent LeGrade to go into wild hysteria. Pete goes to new lodgings and, finally, through Rosa Redmond, a booking agent, secures a contract in vaudeville. Incidentally, he gains her personal admiration to an amazing degree. She sees that his embonpoint is admirably fitted for the portrayal of the part of Falstaff, and books him to play a sketch of “The Merry Wives of Windsor.” A packed house, including Rosa, is on hand. Pete is awkward and nervous in delivering his first love scene with Mistress Ford and the audience is correspondingly amused, much to the disgust of Rosa. During the action of the sketch, Pete, as Falstaff, is disguised as a witch and hidden behind a screen on sudden news of the approach of Mr. Ford. Just as Pete has donned his woman’s clothes, there is ushered into a front box, LeGrade! The excitable Frenchman immediately recognizes the hated Pete, and creates a sensation. Pete forgets his lines. Fighting his way through a delighted crowd on the sidewalk he leaps into a taxi and is driven ten miles into the country. Then he makes the discovery that he hasn’t a cent of money. Dismayed, he makes his escape. He walks the railway ties back to his boarding house. Here he finds his landlady awaiting him with a letter from Rosa to the effect that although he is a failure as a thespian, he can have a job in her office opening the mail.