Jack Hearne, known as the Romany Rye, prefers living with the gypsies rather than claiming the right to his part of his half brother Phillip Royston's country estate, Cragsnest. When he saves Ruth Heckett, the daughter of his friend Joe, a London bird shop owner and burglar, from a theater fire, however, he changes his mind and marries her. As Ruth and Jack board a steamer for America to find witnesses to his parents' wedding for proof of his inheritance, Joe's partner Bos gives Ruth a Bible that he stole from Cragsnest, as a present.