Philip (George Arliss), a monarch of eighteen years standing, suddenly decides he would like to abdicate in favor of the simple life. Eighteen years earlier he was married morganatically to a pretty young woman, Helen (Marjorie Gateson), whom he was forced to divorce if he wanted to be the king. Now, with the permission of his second wife, Queen Margaret (Florence Arliss) who hints that she, too, has a lover to whom she can return, Philip journeys to France where he meets up with his former spouse only to discover that, although she has not remarried, she lives in the very king opulent splendor he is trying to avoid. He returns to Margaret, who has taken a small house without servants, and, as her boast of a former liaison was not true, it is clear that the couple will see out the rest of their lives together.