Bart Darrow, a young cowboy, is engaged to pretty Betty King and has put the engagement ring on her finger. Betty promises to always be true and Bart departs joyfully. In the town saloon he sets up the drinks in honor of the occasion. Meanwhile Betty's brother introduces her to a young stranger and it is a case of love at first sight between the two. They are standing out at the mail-box hand in hand when a prospector rides past who is a staunch friend of Bart. Finding Bart in the saloon he tells him what he has seen and Bart is furious. He calls at the King ranch, rebukes Betty for her infidelity and she angrily returns the ring. Bart leaves heart-broken. Years later Bart is sent out of the county by the sheriff for his lawless depredations. Out in the desert he rides and is seeking for a spot to bunk for the night when he suddenly sees a covered wagon in the distance. Riding up he finds a little girl weeping over the dead body of her mother. Tenderly Bart takes the child in his arms, then sees a letter in the dead woman's hand. There are only two lines, but they are enough to tell him the poor wasted form was once his sweetheart, Betty, and that he was going to her brother's home with her little girl after the death of her husband. For a moment Bart bows his bead in silent grief with the little one clasped in his arms. The first shadow of night is upon the desert when he rides slowly away from the lone grave. Reaching an abandoned shack, Bart makes a bunk for the child with his horse-blankets and tucks her in. But the spirit of the dead mother causes the little one to climb from the bed and kneel in prayer and Bart, for the first time in his rough life, bows his head in solemn communion.