The heroine, May, is tearfully sent off to boarding school, where she soon becomes a spirited and disruptive presence. Disciplined, she runs away, and is rescued from the streets by Hans and Peter, two disreputable mendicants. Taking her into their home, they treat her with exemplary respect; in turn she reforms them, getting them to shave, mend their clothes, and sweep the floor of their hovel. The happy ending is equivocal: the carefree reprobates look at risk of falling victim to respectability, and going to work.