The son of a wealthy business man, Hal, is untouched by the hand of care. His father frequently remonstrates with him and urges him to give up his frivolous ways, but Hal laughs at him. Entirely out of patience, his father one night orders him from the house, and with but a dollar in his pockets Hal proceeds to a saloon, and ordering the drinks for the house, spends his last cent. Somewhat confused, but still carefree, he finds shelter for the night in an open box car. Somewhere in Arizona lives Nugget Jim, a miner, who spends most of his time indulging in liquor. And after a somewhat adventurous trip across the continent, Hal arrives in this region. Being hungry, he enters Jim's cabin, and finding no one there, proceeds to cook himself a meal. Jim appears, and furiously attacks him. Then he forces Hal to come to his mine and work for the food he has stolen. Hal laughingly goes to work. And that night he comes to Jim's cabin again and tells Jim that he intends to stay with him and work his mine for him. Madge, Jim's daughter, is an entertainer in a dance hall. Hal overhears her pleading with her father to be allowed to return home, but he refuses. Hal gets to thinking, and that night takes Madge from the dance hall and to her house. Jim is furious, and a fight ensues between the two men, but this time it is Jim who receives the beating. Hal locks him up in one of the rooms, and keeps him there until the liquor is entirely out of his system. Then he forces Jim to go to the mine and work. Time passes. Jim has come to see the folly of his ways, and determines to make a man of himself. Then comes a letter to Hal from his father, who has located him through a detective agency, and the father begs Hal to come home to him, and that all will be forgiven. Hal concludes that he must go, but at the depot, and after he had gotten on the train, he changes his mind, and leaping from the train he goes back to the two people whose lives he has changed so much, and who have incidentally made him a worthwhile man.