New York confidence man "Silk" Wilkins ingratiates himself with millionaire Lawrence Gray, knowing Gray’s wife and daughter Zelda were lost in a flood eighteen years earlier. After promising to find Gray's daughter, Silk returns to his boardinghouse, where he finds Alice Sheldon, broke and about to commit suicide. Silk convinces Alice to pose as Zelda Gray and then notifies Lawrence via a note placed in an almond shell that he has found the lost daughter. Lawrence treats Alice so kindly that when Silk demands payment from her on Christmas morning, she refuses. Lawrence, who has overheard the conversation, enters and laughingly reveals that he had known of the frame-up all along. Grateful to Silk for finding him a wife, Lawrence writes the confidence man a large check.

Actuant segons la seva creença que la majoria de la gent es torna sentimental a l'època de Nadal i, per tant, és presa fàcil, l'home de confiança de Nova York "Silk" Wilkins es relaciona amb el milionari Lawrence Gray, la dona i la petita filla del qual Zelda van desaparèixer en una riuada divuit anys abans.