Max is in love with a pretty girl, and one evening pays a stolen visit to his sweetheart's, whose father, a successful dyer, has to leave by a late train for the provinces. Arrayed in a pale gray frock-coat, Max meets his sweetheart's father on the threshold of his front door. The meeting is not to Max's liking, although he is unknown to the dyer. He makes a dash for it, but the dyer sees his gray form disappearing up the staircase, and returns to his flat. Max hears his footsteps just as he is about to kiss his sweetheart, and the girl pushes him into one of the dyeing rooms. Here there is no place of concealment except a huge receptacle full of black dye. In this Max plunges as the dyer enters. When the latter has again departed, Max emerges dyed black. He escapes by the window, returns home, and tumbles into bed without removing his clothes. Next morning the maid is horrified to find a negro in bed. She hurriedly goes out to call for her mistress and the police. Before they return Max awakes, and escapes by the window to return to the dyer's to be dry-cleaned. When the police enter nothing but a black impression of Max's form is to be seen on the bed, and his mother is arrested for daring to play practical jokes upon the authorities. In the meantime, Max has returned to the dyer's, and some amusing scenes, in which he mystifies the proprietor and remains undiscovered, terminate the film.