A young girl’s father (Bacon) arranges with the local fire chief (Campbell) to have his house burn down so he could collect on the insurance money. However, a real fire breaks out elsewhere in the town. The firemen ignore an inhabitant of the burning building as he tries to alert them to the fire, first by activating the fire alarm, then by phoning the fire station, and then by going to the fire station in person. Eventually, a fireman (Chaplin) alerts the fire chief and the fire company goes to put out the fire. The father than realizes that his daughter is still in his own burning building, and the same heroic fireman climbs the outside of the building to save her.
