Paul Harvard, the son of a wealthy Northerner, visits the Carolina Pines, where he falls in love with Grace Wilson. Federal agent Wilbur Grant, a Northerner who is investigating counterfeiting and moonshining, poses as a drunk to gain the confidence of the counterfeiter's leader, Richard Quigg, supposedly a real estate agent. When Quigg offers to cancel the mortgage on Magnolia Hall, the Wilson home, if Grace will marry him, she angrily refuses. Paul lives in the mountains with the Tollivers and soon is suspected of being the lover of pregnant Caroline Tolliver, who is secretly Quigg's wife. After attempting to kill Paul, Jack Tolliver lures him to a mill, where Paul is beaten. When a lightning bolt strikes the mill and floods wash it away, Grant, secluded, rescues Paul, who then saves Jack. Caroline confesses and Jack publicly apologizes to Paul. After Paul rushes to a nearby bank to get cash to buy Magnolia Hall before the mortgage is due, Quigg's bid secures it, but Grant arrests Quigg and confiscates his counterfeit bills. Paul buys the estate for Grace and they plan to marry. - AFI
Although most of this film was shot in California, cameramen from American's Chicago studio shot scenes of a lightning storm which were used in some double exposure scenes. This film was re-released in Nov 1918, after Harold Lockwood died of influenza, by Ivan Film Productions, under the title "A Web of Intrigue."