The Wife's Relations

Aspiring inventor Tom Powers gets a position as caretaker of the Clifford Rathburn estate and invites his impoverished friends to visit him while his employer is away. Rathburn has gone to Palm Beach to visit Cyrus Dodd, millionaire automobile manufacturer whose daughter, Patricia, Rathburn would like to marry. Disliking Rathburn, Patricia slips away to New York, becomes an elevator operator, and meets Powers. They marry and honeymoon at the Rathburn estate. Patricia takes an interest in Tom's invention and persuades her parents to visit them in hopes of securing financial backing for the invention, a new type of automobile paint. Tom's friends pretend to be his servants, making a big impression on the Dodds. Clifford Rathburn arrives home. The friends tie him up in an upstairs bathroom. Freeing himself, he breaks a pipe: water floods through the ceiling and into the dining room just as Dodd is signing a sizable check. The ceiling caves in; Clifford denounces the couple; Mrs. Dodd threatens to have the marriage annulled; but Cyrus Dodd, recognizing the importance of his son-in-law's invention, is happy with his daughter's choice and makes Powers a business partner.