Charlie, competing with his rival's race car, offers Mabel a ride on his motorcycle but drops her in a puddle. He next joins some dubious characters in abduction of his rival just before the race for the Vanderbilt Cup. With her boyfriend locked up in a shed, Mabel takes his place. Charlie does what he can to sabotage the race, even causing Mabel's car to overturn.

A satire on the way that audiences unaccustomed to the cinema didn't know how to react to the moving images on a screen - in this film, an unsophisticated (and stereotypical) country yokel is alternately baffled and terrified, in the latter case by the apparent approach of a steam train

Children aged four dance a 'Cakewalk'.

Robber forces wayfarer to undress.

Given an hour off from his job as a cafe waiter, Charlie rescues Mabel from a thug, is given an invitation to her home, and arrives presenting a card which falsely identifies him as the Greek Ambassador. Before he can get back to work, her parents invite him to a future garden party. Her jealous lover has Charlie followed back to the cafe. Charlie is a hit at the garden party but, as he leaves to return to work, the rival invites everyone to go with him to the cafe so Charlie will be exposed.