After becoming Adam Keating's partner in a ranching venture, Walt Landis hopes to become his son-in-law as well. Adam's daughter Helen, however, has different ideas, and marries the dissipated Fred Sherwood. Tired of his solitary rancher's life, a disappointed Walt then marries Rose McKee after answering the lonely-hearts letter that she placed in a box of collars. Meanwhile, Adam grows weary of Fred's chronic laziness, and so, hoping that the change of scenery will prove therapeutic, he sends Fred and Helen to Walt's ranch. Thrown together, Fred and Rose soon fall in love, while Helen, bored with her shiftless husband, starts a flirtation with Walt. Then, Rose and Fred get caught in quicksand, and for a moment Walt and Helen, seeing their chance to get married, consider letting them die. They finally rescue them, however, after which Helen and Fred return to Adam's ranch, while Walt and Rose continue their loveless marriage. -AFI