Mr. Wheeler, the head of a temperamental family, hires wounded U.S. Army veteran Clarence Smith to do odd jobs around his house. However, Clarence enters a household in disarray: Governess Violet Pinney is resented by Mr. Wheeler’s sixteen-year-old flapper daughter, Cora, and suspected by the neglected Mrs. Wheeler to be the object of her husband’s affections. Cora’s fifteen-year-old brother, Bobby Wheeler, has been expelled from high school and is being sued by Della, the family maid, for breach of promise. Clarence falls in love with Violet and, with her help, kidnaps Cora to prevent her from eloping with Mr. Wheeler’s dishonest, former private secretary, Hubert Stem, whom Clarence beats, then shakes into submission. When Stem finds a newspaper clipping in Clarence’s pocket about an Army deserter named Charles Smith, he shows it to Mr. Wheeler and insists that Charles and Clarence are one and the same. Wheeler is inclined to believe Stem, because he has noticed his wife’s admiring glances at Clarence. However, Clarence calms down the clan by playing his saxophone, and a letter arrives addressed to “Dr. Smith,” revealing that Clarence is a well-known etymologist being offered his former job at a university. Violet accepts Clarence’s marriage proposal, and all are reconciled.