Albert Durandal, a kindly figure with aspirations to be a music hall performer, effectively adopts a young girl Josette when her mother is taken ill and has to go to a sanatorium. He also assists an elderly man who collapses in the street, looking after him at his house without realising he is the millionaire Samuel Rothenmeyer. Rothenmeyer repays this help by financing Durandal's career on stage.