Hiram Boggs is a most inconvenient height; he is big enough to be hit and not big enough to hit back. Everyone picks on him, from the wife of his heart to the unsympathetic bill collectors and book agents. Boggs observes a bank messenger under the escort of a burly special officer and he decides that a body-guard will solve his problem. He hires a near prize tighter for his "standing army.'' Then the book agents stand from under and he can abuse his pet enemy over the phone without being afraid of a subsequent beating. He has such an enjoyable time that he spends the evening playing poker in defiance of wifely edicts, and when he gets home he sends the pugilist in first. While she is chasing the bruiser up the street with the "business part" of a hall tree, Boggs slips into his pajamas and throws a bluff that goes, but the next morning the fighter meets his ex-employer and gets square.