While talking to the soldier, she pays no attention to the baby, and the beggar woman approaches from behind and snatches the sleeping child.

Rover, also sitting in the room, listens before jumping through the window and racing down the street, going around a corner and across a river.

[6] The dog leaves the house and swims back across the river, down the street and into its master and mistress's home.

[6] Rescued by Rover was predominantly a family affair – Cecil Hepworth's wife, Margaret, wrote the scenario and played the role of the mother on screen.

Two professional actors were paid to appear, Sebastian Smith as the soldier, and his wife Lindsay Gray as the old woman who stole the baby.

[17] The first few years of the 20th century were a period in which many film-makers began placing a higher emphasis on portraying a narrative story, and lesser so more on the image and the ability to show something.

Contemporary audiences may find it rather hoary, although one scholar has noted the format would be familiar to fans of the dog character Lassie.

[17] In linking these shots together, Hepworth attempted to avoid the confusion of earlier multi-shot films such as Edwin S. Porter's The Great Train Robbery (1903).

A fourth repetition is, rather radically for its time, spared by showing the kidnapper's return to her room followed by a shot of the reunited family.

While the duration of the shot does not correspond with the time necessary for the father and the family dog to travel back, it also does not affect the sense of realistic on-screen representation.