Squire Laurie, the village skinflint, takes a circus tiger as security for a loan. Arthur, who loves Lillian, the old man's daughter, hates tigers, having bucked them, but when Laurie's tiger dies of despondency Arthur skins it, so that Ben, the keeper can pose in its skin before the half-blind miser and save his job, while Arthur warned off the premises by old Laurie, turns tiger occasionally so that he can sit in the cage and make love through the bars to Lillian, despite her hard-hearted Pa. When the old man becomes suspicious he is chased by the fake tiger until he consents to Lillian's marriage.