George Walters, with the aid of crooked Uncle Bleary and his associates, passes himself off as the long-lost son of George Warring (Sr.) in order to seize the family fortune. The family becomes convinced of his identity when George's profile casts the same shadow as the bust of the missing son. Bleary presses him for money, and George is about to quit when he is identified by a friend of Warring's daughter as "the polite burglar" who once robbed her. Matters are complicated when George discovers that Glaxton, the family lawyer, is slowly poisoning the father. George decides to stay, unravels the conspiracy, wins a wife, is the means for sending Bleary and Glaxton to jail, and is finally established as the genuine George Warring.