Traveling salesman Bob Blake finds himself at a railroad junction instead of his intended destination through a practical joke played on him by two drummer friends, and he spends the night in an unoccupied house up for sale. In Grand River he falls in love with its owner, Beth Elliott. Politician Martin Drury conspires with her suitor, Franklin, to buy the property cheaply, knowing it is wanted by the railroad, but Bob beats him to the sale and pays the taxes. Beth, thinking Bob has deceived her, accepts their offer, but when he learns that a wife's signature is invalid without the assent of her husband they get married, thus checkmating the schemers.