Mons. Dauber, an eccentric artist, induces the wife of the proprietor of a ladies’ physical culture school, to pose for a picture that he is painting. The husband hunts for his wife and finds her posing in scanty attire for the artist. He orders her to her own room, and warns the artist never to speak to his wife again. The artist gets an idea that he will paint only animal pictures in the future and keep out of trouble. He stops a man passing by and pays him to pose with a bearskin on. The artist leaves the room for a few minutes, and while he is gone, a real bear that has escaped from an organ grinder, climbs up the fire escape to the studio and scares the man away. The man with the bearskin on runs out on the street and is chased by the organ grinder, who thinks it is his bear. The artist returns and starts to apologize for his absence, and finds that he now has a real bear in the room and rushes madly out into the hall followed by the bear. He sees the door to the gym and rushes in and hides in one of the dressing rooms, while the bear jumps in the tank and takes a swim. The wife tells her husband that she is going to take a swim and goes to the dressing room to put on her bathing suit, and finds the artist there. Her husband comes out and calls to her. She is afraid to answer on account of the artist being there. Finally the husband sees them and is about to shoot the artist, when the man with the bearskin on and the organ grinder fall through the skylight into the plunge. They all go to see what the noise is about and the artist gets a chance to explain how he came to be in the dressing room. Everything ends all right.