After the death of her father, a young girl goes to live with her uncle in Kentucky. She immediately comes into conflict with her uncle's shrewish wife.
The Long brothers try to jump the gold claim owned by "Kentuck" Windfield Gordon and John Silverwood; Kentuck is killed while defending his property, and Silverwood sends Kentuck's orphaned daughter Nannie back to her Uncle Henry in Kentucky. When she arrives, Uncle Henry is away on business, leaving Nannie at the mercy of his second wife, who mistreats her as a poor relation and resents the competition she presents to her own daughter Rachel. Aunt Chlorindy, the mammy who helped raise Nannie, protects her, and when Mrs. Gordon drives Nannie out of the house, Aunt Chlorindy finds her refuge with Mrs. Morgan, a wealthy widow living nearby. There Nannie meets Tom Boling, a rich young bachelor who falls in love with her. Justice is served when Tom marries Nannie rather than Rachel as Mrs. Gordon had planned, and Silverwood returns for the ceremony, rich from striking gold, and falls in love with Mrs. Morgan.—Pamela Short
John Silverwood ("Tuolumne John") and Windfield Gordon ("Kentuck") have been doing placer mining in California. Gordon's little daughter, Nannie, is with them. Long brothers have sought to "jump" the claim of the two cronies, and a feud has developed. One night Tuolumne John, challenged by the Long brothers to fight or leave the camp, decided to go alone to the saloon where the miners are wont to foregather, and settle the matter by challenging one of the Longs to a duel. He steals away from the cabin, leaving Kentuck and Nannie to memories of their home in far away Kentucky, for it is the anniversary of Kentuck's marriage. When Kentuck discovers Tuolumne's bunk is empty he suspects that something is wrong, and starts out. Nannie sees her father depart, and she, too, makes for the camp. Kentuck arrives just in time to be killed by one of the Long brothers, and dies in Nannie's arms. After Kentuck's funeral, Tuolumne sends Nannie back to Kentucky, consigning her to Henry Gordon, her uncle. Arriving in Kentucky, the girl meets opposition from Gordon's wife, a woman who had married before and was mother of a girl about Nannie's age. Gordon had been called to Lexington to attend the Legislature, but left word with his wife that Nannie should be treated as though she were her own child. Disregarding her husband's expressed instructions, Mrs. Gordon slights Nannie. Mrs. Gordon has determined that her daughter shall wed Tom Boling, a rich young planter. When Boling calls one day upon Rachel Gordon, the old "mammy," on mischief bent, sends Nannie to open the door. From that moment Rachel Gordon's chances to "make a great match" were at an end. Without knowing the havoc she had wrought, Nannie became an object of Mrs. Gordon's special persecution, and to relieve the girl from her unpleasant situation, the "mammy" takes Nannie to the home of Mrs. Morgan, a wealthy widow in the neighborhood, where she remains until Henry Gordon returns from the Legislature. When Gordon discovers the condition of affairs, he promptly installs Nannie in the station he originally intended she should occupy in his home. There Tom Boling meets her, pays court, and ultimately proposes. The wedding day is set, but Mrs. Gordon, adhering to her original antipathy to Nannie, declines to aid her with her wedding dress. Only a few days before the day of the wedding a trunk arrives at the Gordon home addressed to Nannie, and therein she finds beautiful dresses to gladden her heart and make bright her wedding day. Tuolumne (who follows the trunk) has struck gold; Nannie, as his partner, is rich, and in the course of events "Tuolumne" and Mrs. Morgan, the widow who has befriended Nannie, are married.
