Three-year-old Charles Stuart Wyngate longs to be a Boy Scout, while his seven-year-old sister Violet, who wishes that she was a boy named Bill, desires to help the war effort through Red Cross work. The children play happily after their mother sends for a scout uniform, until they meet another child, Harold, whose father is a pacifist. After Charles punches Harold in the nose, Harold's father comes and explains his beliefs. Mrs. Wyngate tries to convert him by telling of her husband's death in battle in France. Harold's father, also widowed, listens with interest, and resolves to enlist to win Mrs. Wyngate, who plans to continue her Red Cross work in France. After Harold is hurt playing with the Wyngate children, he is cared for at their house, and is permitted by his father to wear Charles' scout uniform. While playing near the waterfront, Harold and Violet are kidnapped by spies.