Piggott Luce, a prominent citizen in a small town having two rival regiments, becomes a private in the Milk White Guards. Mrs. Luce makes it her business to domineer over Piggott. There ensues rivalry between the Milk White Guards and the Black Guards and many plans are carried out by each regiment to outdo the other regiment. Piggot Luce and Phil Graves, the undertaker, plot to defraud an insurance company. Piggott is supposed to die while Graves carries him to his undertaking establishment, and spreads the news abroad. Mrs. Piggott Luce is delighted when she hears the news of her husband’s passing, causes her charming daughter of nineteen to don short dresses and proceeds to go forth and capture a husband. The White Guards see an opportunity for a military funeral and prepare to bury Piggott Luce with all honors. Piggott Luce, half-starved, is about to throw up his job as being dead, when Phil Graves shows him a certified check for the insurance money, and he resolves to go through with the plot. The funeral march of the White Guards is most impressive, being headed by a full brass band and the Colonel of the White Guards astride a prancing steed with sword drawn. However, en route to the graveyard, a locomotive causes the horses drawing the hearse to run away. Piggott Luce is precipitated down an embankment into the river, where he quickly comes to life and falls into his wife’s arms.