Bela (Colleen Moore), reared by Indians, learns that she is a white orphan and runs away from the Indian village to avoid marrying a brave from the tribe. She determines to marry land prospector Sam Gladding (Lloyd Hughes), who resists her advances but later falls in love with Bela when an Indian sage gives him some advice.—Pamela Short
Bela is the tomboy of an Indian village. She learns from Musq'oosis, the sage of the tribe, that she is really a white girl, the daughter of a man who had died in the Indian country. Realizing that she can now marry a white man, she runs away from the village and arrives at a nearby cabin, where four men are living. Three of them, Big Jack Skinner, Black Shand Frazer, and Joe Hagland are land prospectors. The fourth, Sam Gladding, is the son of a wealthy New York family who has gone into the wilds to find himself. Sam works as a cook for the other three men. Bela walks into the cabin, finds Sam cooking, and the other men quarreling over a game of dice. She accepts their invitation to "make herself at home." The three prospectors see Bela as a prize and decide to shoot dice to see who shall have her. Frazer wins. Sam protests, but is beaten up by Hagland. Frazer forces himself on Bela, but she scratches and pummels him, and escapes from the cabin through a rear window. Sam is kicked out of the cabin by the other three man. He takes his blanket roll and sleeps on the shore of a nearby lake. Bela finds him, sews him into the blanket, and paddles him to an island in the center of the lake. Bela intends to hold Sam there until he consents to marry her, but the next morning she relents and brings him to the white settlement. Sam is arrested when the other three man charge him with abducting Bela. When Bela admits it was she who did the kidnapping, Sam is released, but is made the laughing stock of the community. Bela secretly stakes Sam to some provisions and tools to work a small land claim, but he believes Mahool, proprietor of the village store, is the person who provided the assistance. Sam gradually falls for Bela. He goes to clear his land, while Bela stays in the settlement and opens a restaurant. After a few weeks, Sam returns to the settlement for supplies. When he enters Bela's restaurant, he sees Hagland forcing himself on Bela. The two men fight, and Hagland is defeated. Hagland remarks that Sam is "kept by a woman." Then Sam learns that Bela is the person who staked him, and is furious with the girl. He runs out of the restaurant, intending to pack up and leave the country. But Musq'oosis, the philosophical Indian, manages by subterfuge to bring Sam and Bela together again.
