In retaliation for an attack on his wife Isobel, Scottie Dean, a passenger on a whaling ship, throws Captain Jim Blake overboard and, believing that he is responsible for the captain's death, flees to the North Woods for safety. Assigned to track Dean down, Sergeant William MacVeigh is closing in on his prey when he meets Isobel drawing a sled that allegedly contains her husband's coffin and, taken by her beauty, he inadvertently allows the couple to escape. An enemy of MacVeigh's, Corporal Bucky Smith, insists that the Sergeant has violated his oath and vows to get Dean himself, forcing MacVeigh to arrest Dean to save Isobel. After he disposes of the Corporal, MacVeigh allows Dean to escape, but later Dean appears at MacVeigh's cabin begging for help for his wife, who is ill in a distant hut. Learning that Blake is not dead, Dean dies and MacVeigh, who is still in love with Isobel, goes to her. Delirious with brain fever, however, she drives him away, accusing him of killing her husband. Years later, after receiving a letter informing him that Isobel has died, MacVeigh travels to Montreal to visit her daughter and there discovers that the woman he loves is alive, and the pair are happily reunited at last.—Pamela Short