An old maid receives a telegram from the administrator of a distant uncle's will, stating that he is shipping her share of the inheritance in a box. When the box arrives, the old maid discovers it contains a full-sized orangoutang, which escapes from the box and causes her no end of trouble when she tries to inveigle him to re-enter his prison. In the apartment next to that of the old maid is a musician who persists in torturing a trombone, to the exasperation of the old maid, who vainly tries to persuade him to cease his efforts. He, however, only slams the door in her face. When she returns to her apartment, she finds that the monk has again made his escape from the box and is roaming around the room, doing what damage he can. It is then that her attention is again called to the musician, who resumes his practice upon the trombone. The orang makes his escape from the apartment via a window and makes his way unmolested down the street, until he arrives at a circus tent, in which a performance is at that time going on. He enters the menagerie tent and proceeds to release all the animals of the menagerie. The elephants and camels are stampeded, and the lions, tigers, leopards, pumas, and other animals, proceed to make for freedom. Many exciting scenes follow, in which the animals terrorize the neighborhood. They are finally all captured by the keepers from the circus. The old maid and the musician make up their differences, and going after the truant monkey, find him engaged in eating fruit at a fruit stand. He is vengefully borne homeward and confined with no chance of escape, while the romance of the old maid and the musician ripens into love.
—Moving Picture World synopsis