Tom Harper, a young sheepman, lately arrived in the country with his mother, is warned by an unsigned note that "this is a cattleman's country, and not good for a sheepman's health." Tom goes to the sheriff, armed with the note, and a revolver, and tells this officer that he is not looking for trouble, but they had better let him alone. Tom, on his way home, is fired upon, and returning the shot, wounds one of the cattlemen. Tom turns his horse, and riding to his sweetheart's home, takes refuge there. The wounded man is carried to Tom's home, when his mother, unaware that the cattleman had sought her son's life, cares for him. In the meantime, a number of the cattlemen have trailed Tom to his sweetheart's home, where they lay in wait for him. Later, Tom is taken in hand by the sheriff and looked up in jail to prevent a lynching. But Buck Weaver, the ring-leader of the cattlemen, who was shot by Tom, learning that his nurse is the mother of the man he tried to kill, goes to the sheriff and makes a full confession that Tom shot him in self-defense.