Houdini and his wife Bess are walking along the Seine in Paris, when he encounters a melee between a drunkard and the police. In the ensuing confusion, Houdini is arrested and taken to the police station where he is handcuffed, manacles, shackled, straitjacketed and otherwise tied up to a chair. He escapes from all these restraints. The film, originally shot in 1901, and re-shot in 1909, is intended as a way of recording the amazing escapes of Houdini the illusionist.