Ralph Darcy, a young man of wealth, is in love with Tom Hall's daughter Bess, who is at school in a distant city. He is about to propose to her when he learns that he has contracted tuberculosis and must live in the open for a year, but he cannot bring himself to tell Bess. She, in the meantime, is preparing for her graduation and writes her father, who is foreman of Mammoth Mines, to be present when she graduates. Jack Tice controls the gambling in the rough mine and cattle town of Mammoth. He sees Bess' picture and falls in love with her. Hall, going to town to get the payroll money, is grazed by a bullet fired in cowboy fun. Whiskey is given to revive him which awakes a long suppressed desire for drink. This leads into gambling and by the time he is ready to return to the mines, he has lost the payroll money. Tice, pretending to be Hall's good friend, does not permit him to gamble or drink in his place, but so arranges that Hall does so at some other place and pockets half the money Hall loses. Then, to further his ends, he loans Hall the money that belongs to the mining company's payroll. Pretending he has sold his gambling hall, he and Hall go to see Bess graduate. Ralph received word that the trust company has failed and his fortune swept away. He then writes Bess, telling her all, and asking that she wait a year for him. Hall, however, apprehends the letter and Bess, not hearing from Ralph, believes he has forgotten her and finally consents to marry Tice. After the marriage she discovers her husband's perfidy. She leaves him after getting word from Ralph that he is on his way to claim her. Fleeing, she knows not whither, Bess becomes caught in quicksand and Ralph, now a cowboy, hearing her cries, finds her and rescues her from certain death. In the meantime, Tice has been severely thrashed by Bess' father. Cowboys destroy the source of his ill-made profits, and in his endeavor to escape, Tice is killed. Bess and Ralph are now free to complete their romance. - Moving Picture World, March 18, 1916