Ivan Petroff and Peter Vasillovitch are anarchists. Ivan is working on a new explosive. His reward is to be Anita, Peter's pretty daughter. Ivan discovers the explosive. It is shown that it is good, because it blows Ivan and Peter through the window. Ivan goes home with Peter to claim his reward. But Anita loves Jim, a young American. Ivan decides that Jim shall be the first to be killed by the new explosive. He carefully prepares the bomb, but leaves it outside a saloon while he goes in for a drink and a tramp steals it and tries to tell it to a junk dealer. The tramp runs down a side street and leaves it in the gutter. Jim, on his way to see Anita, picks it up and finds it very handy on which to crack nuts. Ivan is horrified to see the use to which it is put. but Jim does not worry and finally throws it at Ivan. The humbled inventor takes it to the wood pile to smash it. This time it works, and Jim and Anita are free to marry. Peter mourns over a pair of shoes, all that is left of his compatriot, Ivan.
—Moving Picture World synopsis