New York playboy Carter Richmond inherits the family fortune, but it doesn't take him long to blow it. All that's left is an abandoned mine in California, so he travels west to see if he can get anything for it. He finds that a miner, Big Him Helton, and his pretty young daughter Mary have been "squatters" at the site for years, and a neighboring miner, Placer Murray, has been trying to run them off so he can take it over himself. Mary accidentally shoots Carter, thinking him to be one of Murray's men. As she nurses him back to health, they begin to fall in love. Complications ensue.—[email protected]

Carter Raymond is a young New Yorker who has been left an enormous estate by his father, which he is burning up on the trail of the great white way. To cap the climax he has fallen in love with an actress, Georgette Fallon, and is about to marry her when he is informed by his lawyer that his whole estate is squandered and there is nothing left but a mine in Hell's Canyon Desert, California, so Carter sets out for Desert to make his fortune. The town of Desert is run by a boss, "Placer" Murray. The mine which Carter owns is being worked by Helton, although he has no legal claim to the property, and a short while before Carter arrives Murray tries to take possession of the mine by force. In this he is not successful. Without revealing his identity, Carter secures a job in the mine. As time goes on Carter falls in love with Mary. But all this while Murray has the mine watched and when he finds that they are about to strike it rick, he has the mine blown up out of spite, so that the partners have to begin all over again. The two stick it out and begin the work anew. At this time Raymond receives a telegram from Georgette saying that she is coming to visit him. The day of her arrival Carter and Helton go down to the station to meet Georgette. Hurray, seeing the two in town, thinks it an ideal time to settle his score once for all. So he calls the two into his office and there begins a battle royal. In the end Carter and old Helton succeed in fighting their way out. At last the time comes for Georgette to leave and she begs Carter to go with her. At last he succumbs to the call of the white lights and agrees to go. But Broadway seems tame to Carter after living in the open, and he soon finds himself on the way back to the west. Reaching Desert, he is told that Murray now has possession of the claim, which he bought from Helton for a song. The latter is broken in mind and body and is living in a little hut, attended by Mary. Carter goes to the sheriff and presents his deed to the mine and then goes up to the claim to settle his private score with Murray. When he gets there he is attacked by the whole crowd and forced to fight for his life. In the meanwhile Mary has found out what is happening and has the presence of mind to telephone the authorities in the next county, as the sheriff in that county is being held up by Murray's men. After doing this she goes to Carter's aid and the two of them fight off the attacks of their opponents until aid arrives. Raymond makes Mary a partner in the mine and his partner for life.—Moving Picture World synopsis