In order to pacify a reporter angry at being refused a good seat to see "The Savage," a popular sideshow act, two circus men, Larkey and Kerry, relate the savage's story: Larkey, Kerry and another, shipwrecked on a South Atlantic island, discover a tribe who speak old English and are descended from a colony founded by Sir Walter Raleigh. Beautiful Minnie Lee escapes from the stocks and discovers Kerry, then a minister, who shines an electric light on her. Thinking that he is a god, she falls in love, although he refuses her advances. Larkey, searching for strange animals for the circus, leaves with Minnie. Later, when the circus comes to Kerry's town, Minnie, now The Savage, scratches Larkey until he releases her. She enters Kerry's home, where she shocks his church members by appearing scantily dressed and, without Kerry's knowledge, sleeping next to him. Dismissed as pastor, Kerry realizes he loves Minnie and returns to the circus with her. The reporter later questions Minnie and learns that the preceding tale was not true.