The indolent, thriftless black sheep of the family, the good-for-nothing son of a rich banker, this is the young man we see bothering his busy brother, who is disgusted with the doings of the drunken ne'er-do-well, and leaves him alone in the room. Notwithstanding the entreaties of his two pretty sisters, he fills himself with liquor from a flask and stumbles out to meet his cronies. They all imbibe freely at a fashionable café, and the young man starts home at dawn. He fumbles at the lock, and when he finally gets into the library he surprises two burglars at work. There is a quick scuffle, after which the cracksmen escape, leaving the stupefied young man alone. The commotion has awakened the family, and the black sheep stands before them with all the circumstances pointing to him as a thief in the family. This is the last straw to the suffering father and brother, and they bid him leave the house forever. He bows to the inevitable, kisses his sisters good-bye, and goes forth with heavy step. Fate has ordained that men be not the masters of their destinies, and the fortunes of the father, in the course of years, turn unfavorably. The stock market has taken his all: his home is sold over his head, and in a last effort to recoup he appeals to his good son. Whether it is "the iniquities of the father" we cannot say, but the son he had so lovingly reared turns against him at the crucial moment, and he returns to his now squalid home and his hard-working daughters. Meanwhile the fortunes of the black sheep have taken him to the golden west and in years of labor he has struck it rich. We now see him selling his claim, and he comes home. To his great surprise his father's house holds a new tenant, and he hears of the ill-fortune that befell him. Very unhappy, he begins to walk toward another section of the city, when a little girl selling newspapers accosts him. No, he doesn't want a paper, but he pities her, and reaching down for some change, takes one look at the face, it's his own little sister! It is better that we should not try to tell in words of how he met his other sister, too: prepared a new home for father, without his knowledge, and conspiring with his sisters had the little family evicted, only to bring them to the new home, where the father, bewildered, learns for the first time of the happy return and regeneration of his son.