Herbert Murdock, son of Jason Murdock, millionaire factory owner, marries below his social scale and is disowned by his father. Herbert obtains work in his father's factory under an assumed name. The father learns this and has him discharged. Herbert is destitute and desperate. Added to that his wife has just become a mother. He resolves to make a final appeal to his father. He dons the last of his wearable clothes, a white flannel suit. Herbert finds his father obdurate. They quarrel. While they are quarreling the stenographer goes to lunch. When she returns she finds Jason Murdock, the father, lying dead across his desk. He has been shot through the heart. She discovers that negotiable securities are missing from the desk. Herbert is arrested. Blood is discovered on his coat sleeve. At the coroner's inquest the stenographer tells of the quarrel and of finding Jason Murdock dead. The detectives tell of the arrest and of the bloodstain. The janitor of the building takes the stand. He entered Murdock's office just as Herbert left. Murdock senior was alive at the time because the janitor talked with him and Murdock called his attention to some children playing on the opposite roof, while he, the janitor, was vacuuming the floor. Herbert Murdock takes the stand. He says his father was alive when he left the office. He explains the blood on his coat sleeve by saying that he helped a newsboy who had fallen and injured himself. The District Attorney takes a recess to allow the detectives to investigate Herbert's story. The detectives are unable to verify it. The case looks black for Herbert. The inquest is resumed and the jury is just about to render a verdict charging Herbert, with the murder, when the janitor rushes in. He hands over the missing securities. He explains that he remembered feeling a congestion in the vacuum cleaner while sweeping the floor and talking to Jason Murdock. His theory is that the securities were blown off the desk and that his vacuum cleaner picked them up and he found them in the desk reservoir. "That explains the loss of the securities, but it doesn't exonerate the defendant of murder," declares the District Attorney. The jurymen are ready to return their verdict when a woman enters the courtroom dragging a small boy by the arm. The boy is placed on the stand and tells of playing "Indian" with another boy on the roof opposite Murdock's office and of firing a revolver which "he didn't know was loaded." The boys had seen Murdock crumple up on his desk but were afraid to tell at the time. This exonerates Herbert and there is an affectionate scene between him and his wife. Murdock, Sr., dying interstate his estate goes to Herbert. - Moving Picture World, July 15, 1916