A female derelict in a little mining town comes to a realization of her low station and, in a fit of despondency caused by seeing her child after an orgy, deserts the little one, leaving her to the care of Bill Fenton, a miner. When he learns of the legacy he objects to the charge, but the boys fix it up and he becomes a regular daddy to the kid. Sixteen years pass. The little one has grown into beautiful womanhood, and as the ward of Bill Fenton, has the admiration and respect of the little community. One day a silk-hatted tenderfoot hits the town and Fenton meanders into the barroom just as the stranger is vigorously defending himself from the pernicious sport of the miners. Something about the stranger's makeup and dash attract Fenton, and it is not long before they are not only firm friends, but business partners, and the new arrival is the welcome guest of Fenton. The sweet girl takes to the stranger, Ward Birch, and in her refreshingly innocent way makes him perfectly at home. It is not long, however, before Birch falls deeply in love with her, and seizes the opportunity, when they are out for a ramble, to plant on her lips a soulful, heartfelt kiss. To the childish, carefully bred girl it opens a new order of things and when she returns to the cabin, and Bill kisses her as he always did, she tells him that a guardian must kiss his ward on the forehead, not on the lips. Bill is stunned, for in his great heart he loves her madly, but he tried never to show it. But he must have shown it, for Birch knows the truth. His nobility of character, however, tells him what to do, and leaving a note to Bill that he knows he is an interloper, he stifles his great passion of love, and with a heart full of anguish, he departs. Bill Fenton gets the note, and the shock is great. He says nothing, but observes the girl closely. He sees that she is pining; aye, her young heart is suffering, so he puts on his hat and goes out. After a long search out by the canyon, he comes on Ward. "Ward," says he, "come back to the cabin." Ward refuses, can't do it, it's all right, he's willing to sacrifice. Bill insists, Ward is stubborn, and suddenly Bill strikes him squarely on the chin, rendering him unconscious. Then with his huge arms, he slings the form over his shoulder and carries him to the cabin. Of course, when he comes to, he realizes the motive of the knockout blow; but neither he nor the girl of his heart, safe in his arms, know of how big Bill Fenton, after he made the sacrifice, had to go to a lonely spot out among the hills, so that nobody could see him battling to keep down that big, funny lump that just kept coming up in his throat.