Peter Kennedy, a pernicious landlord who desires his tenant, Nora McCree, realizes that the only way to possess Nora is to eliminate her husband Patrick. To accomplish this, Kennedy arranges a fight between Patrick and another man, in which the latter is badly wounded. Patrick is told that his opponent has died, and at Kennedy's suggestion, joins the army and goes to Africa to fight the Boers. In his absence, Kennedy, unable to win Nora by fair means, does everything in his power to make her feel the pinch of poverty and thus capitulate to him. Things are at their worst for the McCree family when little Eileen, after listening to fairy tales told to her by the Irishman Flynn, dreams of her father and finds him the next day, unconscious under a large tree after having been waylaid by Kennedy upon his return home. With Patrick's return, Kennedy's plans are dashed, and the McCree family is united once again.