Roderick Long decides that his son, Herbert, shall see life before marriage. Accordingly the father gives the boy a considerable sum of money to carry out his schemes. For a time the boy leads a fast life and one night, comes home in an intoxicated state to his father's disgust. The State Legislature passes a law dealing with eugenics, which requires a physical examination of both parties, prior to marriage. While seated in his library, the father reads a newspaper article announcing that the law has gone into effect. He naturally thinks of his son and while wondering what the future may bring forth, he falls asleep. He dreams that his son returns home after having been rejected by the medical examining board and that his son, angry at his fathers desire that he see the fast life, hands him a revolver, with the demand that he kill him. The father refuses, whereupon the boy, taking the gun, shoots himself. In reality, however, the boy regrets the life that he has led and persuades his fiancée to accompany him to the medical board. Both return home. The father is overjoyed on learning that his son is in perfect physical condition.