In the dead of night, John, released after ten years in Dartmoor, creeps into the house where his old mother is housekeeper. His purpose is to steal the silver. He is startled to find the old woman waiting for him, and more so when, for the first time, she stings him with some home truths. Finding that he can no longer wheedle savings from her, he vows that she shall never see him again. Actually she is her mother's employer, a retired actress, who has devised this means of ridding her faithful servant of an unwanted incubus.