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.
A young woman mistakenly believes she has killed a man in a struggle to repel his unwanted advances.
In 1830s England, a young man from a good but troubled family is unjustly convicted of stealing a watch. He's transported to Van Diemen's Land where he suffers under the enmity of Lt. Frere while falling in love with Sylvia, the Warden's daughter. Meanwhile, back in England, an imposter lays claim to the young man's inheritance.
