American author John B. Smart, searching for solitude and an atmosphere for a new story, purchases an old castle in Switzerland. He discovers the beautiful Aline hiding with a baby in the east tower. Daughter of an American millionaire she on running from her ex-husband Count Tarnowsky, who squandered her money and treated her brutally, but whom the courts have awarded their child. The Count arrives confronting John who overcomes him and has him thrown into the dungeon. Smart, Aline and her child flee on a sleigh speeding towards the Italian border with the escaped Count in pursuit. In the nick of time they safely cross the border and Aline consents to be John's wife.

Annice Paisch and her friend, Edna Lawson, almost despair of finding husbands in their dull hometown until Annice is struck with the idea of strewing tacks over the heavily traveled road that passes her house. New Yorker Vance Duncan promptly has an accident and is forced to recuperate in the home of Annice's father, the local doctor. Vance sends Annice to the telegraph station to wire his uncle, Mike Darcy, and there she meets detective Robert Cord, who informs her that Vance is a hopeless alcoholic. Uncle Mike arrives and Annice immediately falls in love with him, while Edna longs for Vance. Cord has Vance imprisoned in Dr. Dumbbell's Sanitarium for Drunkards, but Annice, masquerading as a patient, smuggles him out. They arrive home to find someone else's "Uncle Mike" chastising the detective for tracking down the wrong man, and the four young lovers finally are left in peace.