Green was stricken while spending an afternoon at the seaside with his wife. He saw a fisherman whipping the waters with a line. "Now, my dear," he said, "you just sit down on the warm sand and I'll be back in a minute. Be careful, though, and don't let the tide isolate you. This little stretch of sand will be an island in no time." Thus it is. She waited and waited and Green fished. She went to sleep. The tide rolled in and she was surrounded by water. The nearest that Green could get to her was the summit of a cliff directly above the island. Green conceived the luminous idea of lowering a man, head foremost, over the cliff, the man thus lowered to grab Mrs. Green and lift her up to safety. At the critical moment he lost his hold and dropped the man upon his wife. In desperation Green then went in search for aid. In the meantime a bather happened by. The bather rescued Mrs. Green. When Green returned with a newly enthused party of life-savers, public sentiment, at finding the woman already rescued, ran so high that the disappointed rescuers merely tied Green to a rock and left him alone with the tide.
—Moving Picture World synopsis