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It is the time of final examinations at the college just before vacation. Patsy, having paid full attention to study, is ready to pass successfully, but Sykesy's attention to athletics made him a possible candidate for plucking. The boys are in the examination room just finishing their examination papers and Sykesy is laboring hard to complete his. While the other boys are out on the campus waiting to be called upon for the final delivery Sykesy steals a page from the papers of the boy next to him and copies it. One of the teachers suddenly appearing, in his haste to conceal the stolen paper, Sykesy puts it among Patsy's papers. When the stolen page is found among Patsy's papers, he is called before the faculty, and, being unable to explain how it came to be there, he is expelled for all time from the college, his connection with the automobile theft never having been satisfactorily explained to the faculty. Arriving at his home, even his doting mother cannot induce his irate father to believe that there is any hope for Patsy, and he is put to the hardest work on the farm. On the other hand, Sykesy comes home, having successfully passed his first examinations, contrary to popular belief, and is received in the village as a lion. A grand picnic is given in honor of the returned collegians, but Patsy is in disgrace, and, moreover, his father, now more severe than ever, compels him to do his work on the farm which is more confining than ever. But Patsy takes his medicine like a man, submits to the taunts of Sykesy and other young people, and remains away from the festivities. During the day Sykesy and Tilly cross the field in which Patsy is at work, and leave the bars down. Later on, an opportunity is offered Patsy for a long-sought interview with Tilly, whose love he still covets. Accordingly Patsy deserts his post and meets Tilly by the brook, only to have it interrupted by a fight with Sykesy. While he is away the herd of cows escape from the field, and his irate father, having forbidden him to leave, attempts to give him a thrashing. This Patsy refuses to receive, and leaves the gathering in spite of the tears of his mother and sister. Going to his home, he leaves a note to the effect that, not having been able to make good at home, he has gone to shift for himself. But the only bill he has is a bad one, and he is put off the train at night in an unknown town, where he spends his first night away from home on a bench in the railway station.
—Moving Picture World synopsis
