Half-a-Dollar Bill plot
Mrs. Webber aka The Unknown has been abandoned by her husband. She leaves her baby on a sidewalk with a half dollar bill strapped to his chest and with a note stating that she will return one day for the child with the other half of the bill as identification. The baby is found by Captain Duncan McTeague and his one-legged chef Noodles. Although both men are clumsy, they lovingly raise the baby (a boy named Bill). When Martin Webber, one of McTeague's sailors, has fun with little Bill, he fires him. Webber finds out he is the father of little Bill and kidnaps him in retaliation.