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Fancy Charlie (Tom Moore) breaks into an apartment, but finds a cabinet full of burglar tools. This is a clear indication that he is robbing one of his own, and he is caught by the apartment's owner (DeWitt C. Jennings). The owner admits to his profession, but allows Charlie to leave if he will take a thousand dollars with him and prove himself to be an honest citizen in a small town -- that way, the whole town can be fleeced at a later date. Charlie agrees, but once he gets there he decides to go straight for real. He returns a wallet full of money to Jules Fanchette (Tom Ricketts), who is the keeper of the "Clean Air Fund," and becomes a partner in his store. He falls in love with Nellie Brown (Hazel Daly) and becomes one of the town's most popular residents. Ultimately he is nominated for mayor. Then the man who sent him to the town in the first place shows up. He threatens to expose Charlie, but he bravely tells him to go right ahead. Then the truth comes out: Charlie's associate is not a crook at all, but G.B. Lawson, a U.S. senator who plays around with criminology on the side. Lawson had been using Charlie as part of an experiment, and now that he has proven to be an honest man, he backs him in his new political endeavors.