Ralph Gardner is an artist. His wife is about to become a mother. Things haven’t gone well with Ralph and his landlord has ordered him to vacate their studio. Elsie, the wife, broods over the situation. Obsessed with the idea that she is a millstone about the neck of her husband, she decides to eliminate herself as a troublesome factor. To this end Elsie leaves the studio, intending to kill herself. During her absence, a messenger boy brings Gardner a note from an art collector as well as a check with the information that it is an advance on the purchase price of the picture. Gardner is overcome with joy at the sudden change in his fortune. Hoping to please and at the same time to astonish his wife, he hides the check in a little sock, which his wife had made in anticipation of the arrival of the little stranger, and then retires to an adjoining room. The wife enters and, not seeing Gardner, and thinking he has gone out, prepares to drink the contents of the bottle, first sitting down to write a short note to Gardner. Gardner, in an adjoining room, is impatiently awaiting the discovery of the check. In the other room the wife finishes the note and is about to drink from the bottle, when Gardner, unable to stand the suspense any longer, rushes into the studio. Elsie, in her nervousness, has dropped the bottle of poison. Ralph senses that there is something wrong but does not discover his wife’s attempt at self-destruction. He joyfully tells her the good news and puts the little sock containing the check in her hands.