Pappa Wheeler hires a recently-discharged soldier, Clarence Smith, to repair a water heater and Wheeler keeps him on as an odd-job man around the house. Clarence discovers a few situations brewing in the Wheeler household; daughter Cora is in love with past middle-age fortune hunter, Tobias; son Bobbie is in love with his sister's friend Violet and Mrs. Wheeler also believes her husband is interested in Violet; and the maid, Della and the butler, Dinwiddle, are working a shakedown racket on Bobbie. Clarence decides to straighten matters out, and soon has gotten rid of Tobias and exposed the maid's racket. But he falls in love with Violet himself. Returning from a date with her in the wee hours of the morning, Mr. Wheeler demands an explanation, which Clarence refuses to give. The miffed-Tobias returns to accuse Clarence of being an escaped embezzler.