Although his character doesn't play a big part in the storyline, mid-1910s matinee idol Francis X. Bushman still gets top billing here. Count Nikola (Ernest Maupain) isn't a count at all, but a crook with strange hypnotic skills. He befriends Gideon Hall (Bryant Washburn) when he saves the young man from suicide. Nikola pays Hall's gambling debts and in return, asks to be introduced into society. Hall agrees, and brings Nikola into the Blake home. His sweetheart, Doris Blake (Nell Craig), feels an odd attraction towards the mesmerist, but that's because he has put her under his spell. Under hypnosis, Nikola orders Doris to awaken at 3:13, enter her father's art gallery, take a famous painting by Musee and drop it out the window. That night, at 3:13, the Blakes hear a scream, and find Doris unconscious on the floor. They send for a doctor who realizes that another mind is controlling hers, and he fetches Richard Neal, a psychology specialist (Bushman, finally). By grilling Hall, who is also under Nikola's influence, Neal figures out the game and sets a trap. This brings Neal and Nikola together and in a battle of the minds, Neal proves to be the stronger. Nikola is arrested and Doris regains control of her faculties.