Proud of his Knickerbocker descent, the Elder Van Kortland is ashamed of his son, Philip, for having adopted the stage for a profession. Although Philip is famous as a Broadway Star under the name of Edwin Hargrave, his father begs him to give up the stage and marry the daughter of an old friend. Hargrave refuses to give up his life-work or to marry a girl whose name he does not even know, much less a girl whom he has never seen. He departs on a western tour. While playing a week in a western city he meets and falls in love with Doris Morton, not knowing that she is the girl his father hoped he would marry. Her father, not knowing that Hargrave and Van Kortland are one and the same, tells Doris he would rather see her dead than married to an actor. Philip and Doris elope and are married. Philip and his wife go to Chicago, where he is booked to play several weeks. Here she falls ill, and the actor learns that long and careful nursing will he required to restore her health.