Alan Thurston, a clever thief, poses as a retired broker, and his successful depredations have supplied him with funds so that he carries out the role of a man of ample means. Katherine Selwyn, an orphan, is an art devotee. She earns a precarious living by painting, her favorite subjects being landscapes. One day while working at her easel at the seashore. Thurston spies her and introduces himself as an admirer of her pictures. Katherine is entirely ignorant of Thurston’s profession. His attentions are pleasing and agreeable, and being without anyone to guide or assist her, she falls an easy victim to his wiles and agrees to marry him. As his wife Thurston can train her to become a clever confederate, while their marital relations, he believes, will prevent her from being called as a witness against him in case of detection. After they are married Thurston tells his bride what he expects of her, that he is a society thief, that he requires her aid as an accomplice, and that she must help him. In horror, she realizes for the first time that he has not married her for love. Heartbroken and horror-stricken, she flees from the roof of her newly-made husband, and returns to her precarious existence of painting landscapes for the market. Thurston continues his thieving expeditions with such cleverness as to avoid detection. He receives an invitation to attend a house party at the villa of Mrs. Van Thornton, an invitation which he accepts with avidity, because he realizes that such invitations supply him with opportunities for abstracting valuable jewelry. On the street one day, he accidentally espies Katherine returning to her humble apartment, filled with dejection and anxiety because she has been unable to dispose of her art. Carefully he follows her to the tenement house where she has a poorly furnished room. He hears a voice raised in anger and discovers that the landlady is threatening Katherine with eviction if she does not pay her arrears in rent immediately. Thurston intrudes, with apologies and being well supplied with funds, pays Katherine’s rent. Then, with clever argument, he tells Katherine why she should return to him and help him in his nefarious profession, Driven to desperation, she agrees to come back to him. Thurston attends the house party. He directs Katherine to come in the guise of a newspaper reporter to interview Mrs. Van Thornton in reference to the approaching festivities. He directs that Katherine shall pretend to sprain her ankle in order to permit her to remain in the house and locate the depository for Mrs. Van Thornton’s diamonds. The trick succeeds. Katherine locates the jewel casket, but in a fit of remorse, she refuses to disclose the whereabouts of the jewels to Thurston. She places them in another hiding place so that he cannot find them. Mrs. Van Thornton’s brother has become suspicious of Thurston, and succeeds in rescuing Katherine from the thief’s anger when she refuses to tell him where the jewels are concealed. The brother intercedes, upon which Thurston draws a revolver and attempts to shoot the intruder. A struggle follows and the revolver is accidentally discharged by Thurston, so that the bullet enters a vital spot in his own body, with fatal results. The body of the dead thief is hastily carried to his room and the inference is drawn by all that he has committed suicide. Katherine is forgiven and the interest shown by Mrs. Van Thornton’s brother in the beautiful artist, indicates that they are candidates for future happiness.