Buster Keaton visits his father (Earnest Torrence) whom he has not seen for years and is the captain of a steamboat. After an argument with his rival Tom McGuire, the captain is put in prison and Buster Keaton tries to rescue him. As a sub-plot Buster Keaton and Marion Byron (Tom McGuire's daughter) fall in love. This is one of the best of Buster Keaton's silent films in which he does all his own stunts, including the classic and very dangerous one where he stands in front of a building, the front falls towaqrds him and he survives as an open window falls just where he stands. Although today this would be easy with CGI, Keaton did this himself with a real building.