- An adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes story about a father trying to gain control of his daughter's inheritance does not include Watson.
- When Mr. Rucastle finds out that his daughter Alice is engaged to be married, he becomes furious because he knows that control of the family fortune will shift to her under the provisions of his late wife's will. He orders the fiancé out, and when Alice refuses to sign away control of the estate, he locks her in a shed. He intercepts a note from the fiancé arranging a rendezvous near the copper beech trees on the estate. Rucastle hires Violet Hunter as governess to his six year old son. Violet resembles Alice enough that he hopes to convince the fiancé that she is still in the manor house. After he cuts Violet's hair, the suspicious governess enlists Holmes' aid. The great detective uncovers the plot, frees Alice, and has the scheming Rucastle arrested.—duke1029
- When Alice Rucastle announces her engagement, her father becomes furious as he knows that upon her marriage he will lose control of his late wife's wealthy estate. When Alice refuses to sign over her claims to him, he locks her in an outbuilding guarded by a dog so as not to arouse the suspicions of her fiancé, who has agreed to rendezvous with her at the copper beeches on the estate. Violet Hunter accepts a job as governess for Rucastle's young son, but she becomes suspicious when he forces her to wear one of Alice's dresses and cut her hair so as to appear like Alice when she sits in the window. Violet takes her suspicions to Holmes, who uncovers the plot, frees Alice, and has Rucstle arrested.—duke1029
- "Two hundred pounds a year," said Mr. Rucastle, "that is the sum you may expect, as governess in my family." Miss Hunter, somehow, felt disturbed and distrustful of this strange man, even when he made such a generous offer to her at the employment agency. Nevertheless, she accepted. Upon arrival at "Copper Beeches," the home of Rucastle, Miss Hunter was asked to cut off some of her hair, wear certain dresses, sit in certain chairs and other strange things, which seemed very unusual, to say the least. And later, when she heard sounds as of someone moaning in a shed near the house, she was thoroughly aroused. The climax came when Rucastle caught her at the door of the shed and commanded that she never go near it again. Miss Hunter immediately sent for Sherlock Holmes. She felt certain that she was being employed to impersonate some person, who was kept a prisoner in this old shed. Holmes arrived in the nick of time to prevent a tragedy, since old Rucastle had plotted carefully the death of young William Johnson, a young man who had asked to marry Rucastle's daughter, Alice. Trapped into an appointment by the thought that Miss Hunter was his sweetheart, young Johnson had gone to the "Beeches" and Rucastle had followed with a shotgun, with murder in his heart. Caught by Holmes, the villainous Rucastle is taken to the old shed, where they find his beautiful daughter imprisoned. Rucastle was the trustee of his daughter's very large fortune. Part of this he had squandered and he hoped to divert it all to his own uses. Fearing that should she marry young Johnson, an accounting might be demanded, his villainy and greed led him to plotting and violence.—Moving Picture World synopsis
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