Otto is a struggling artist in love with Helena, daughter of Eben Dollarmark, a wealthy customer. Otto has a rival in love, the bogus Count Espagnola, who is running into debt at the Hotel Royal. Espagnola is looked upon with favor by Dollarmark. Otto is determined to win Helena's heart by winning fame. But no one buys his picture. Rent day arrives and Otto, having no money, is put out. Though Helena loves Otto, Dollarmark orders him out of the house during a special social evening when all society and Espagnola are there. That very evening the Count needing money to settle his debts at the hotel, cuts a priceless painting from its frame in the Dollarmark Galleries, rolls it up and places it in the tail pocket of his evening dress coat. Otto the artist is suspected. He seeks employment and gets a job as a commercial illustrator. The illustration he is asked to make consists of two perspiring cold bottles of beer on a tray accompanied by a succulent "four story" club sandwich. Otto's model is real and so is his appetite. Otto finishes the beer and sandwich before he finishes the illustration. He is fired. Again Otto seeks work, but this time he is not so successful. Nothing else at hand he takes a job as house painter during a strike. Dreaming of Helena, Otto sits sadly on a scaffold painting the Hotel Royal in the "neighborhood" of the tenth story. The strikers soon see him from the street, and Otto sees the strikers. Yells of "scab" bring the situation home to him in a moment and he jumps through the window into a corridor. The strikers rush to the various entrances to watch for Otto's exit. Otto rushes down the corridor, trying every door in the hope of finding refuge. Every room is occupied. Otto surprises several guests in various stages of dress and undress. Speeding to the eleventh floor he finds a vacant room, rushes in, locks the door and jumps into bed as the hysterical guests, hotel attachés, strikers and policemen mix it up in the halls. After the confusion subsides Otto slips out of bed, peers out the window and observes the strikers still waiting for him. Realizing that his only means of escape lies in disguise, he hastily dons a full dress suit that hangs in a closet. He finds a high hat and overcoat to fit him but no shoes. He is compelled to wear his paint stained shoes with his recently borrowed attire. An observant cop, unable to see the connection between Otto's shoes and his clothes, takes him into custody. At the police headquarters he is searched and the stolen painting is revealed in the tail pocket of his borrowed evening dress coat. Otto explains the situation and the police believe him. They telephone Dollarmark that a stolen painting has been recovered; he is asked to identify it. The Count, never suspecting, arrives on the scene. Otto wins the girl, and the Count is arrested.