Picturesque old Lawrence Shea was quite a figure in his district. He was crippled as well as venerable, and he peddled shoe laces and other trifles for a living. His only possession of any consequence in this world was a small but precocious grandson, who tended the old man as best he could, and was himself tended in return. The little boy was thrifty, frugal and persevering, and so it fell that when one day old Lawrence was arrested for peddling without a license, the boy was able to come to the assistance of his grandfather by going to court and proffering payment of the fine, which the kindly judge refused to accept, and released the poor, old man. So the aged derelict and the small boy, so full of promise, returned home to work out their respective destinies in accordance with probabilities.
—Moving Picture World synopsis