The original story, with its strong patriotic theme, was written during the American Civil War in order to increase public support for the Union cause.

[4] As described in a film magazine,[5] Barbara Norton (La Badie) and her brother Tom (Marlo), orphaned children of a veteran who gave his life for his country, go to live with their uncle Phineas (Howard) and aunt (Hastings) in the city.

Having lost Barbara and his popularity makes him resent the constant references to the United States and his debt to his country, and he curses his native land.

Later, an old friend of John's family, Pop Milton (Dundan), gives him a copy of The Man Without a Country and asks him to read it and rise above his treasonous views.

John's spirit returns from the allegorical journey and he responds to the new and vigorous manhood within and enlists at once, thereby winning Barbara, who was at home on sick leave from her nursing work in France.