Father, finding his daughter, Mary reading a novel, takes it away from her, and, in order to ascertain how low his daughter’s tastes have fallen, he starts to read the hook. He soon becomes deeply interested in vicissitudes of the leading characters. Being interrupted frequently by members of his family, he moves from room to room, until he finally takes refuge in the cellar. The story is exciting. The heroine and hero are captured, brought to an old mill, where the villain intends to drop the hero into the waterhole unless the heroine consents to be his wife. But the villain is thwarted by the plucky heroine, who cuts the ropes around her lover’s hands while the villain and his gang are talking the matter over, thereby effecting their escape. Later the heroine is lured to a rendezvous by a forged note from the villain, learning of this the hero rides at terrific speed on his bicycle to the place, and a struggle takes place. Father discovers that the last page of the book is missing, while mother discovers that the stove needs more coal. Descending into the cellar she falls over father, who, in the course of the resultant lecture from his better half, notes that the last page of the book is among her curling papers; but mother will not consent to give it to him and so father will never know the outcome of the fight.