Chaplin plays an escaped convict who steals a minister's clothes to get out of his prison uniform. He ends up in a small town mistaken for a parson, and accepts a position at the local church. The Pilgrim's true identity is revealed when he tries to get a fellow crook to return money the crook stole from the Pilgrim's landlady. But rather than incarcerate the Pilgrim, the sheriff releases him at the Mexican border.
