Family relationships of a New Mexico family are just one part of this silent cowboy western about a war veteran who finds a goldmine. He wants to earn enough money to take care of his young son, but crooked officials swindle him out of the mine, and then his son is killed. He swears vengeance and joins up with Mexican bandit, "Pancho Zapilla", who intends to destroy his whole town.

Sioux leader Chief Gray Otter sends his son Tiah to the white man's school so that he can become a great leader. The son returns home drunk, disappointing his father. Things get worse when the son joins a group of renegades and robs a payroll wagon. The father, observing the clash from a distance, takes a side.

Half-breed Joe Elk wavers between the "civilized" nature of his white father and the passion of his Indian mother. He falls in love with Alice McRae, but Alice is in love with Bruce Smithson, who is an officer at the Hudson Bay Trading Company.

A 1916 silent Western

The story is set in Alaska, where spoiled and pampered heiress Octavia Van Ness has come for her health. Here she meets 'Chuck' Hemingway, who despite his rough exterior is likewise a child of wealth, and a Yale graduate to boot. When Van Ness violently rejects his romantic overtures, Hemingway turns to an old Indian chum for advice. The Indian suggests rather chauvinistically that the way to win a headstrong girl is to "tame" her -- that is, treat 'er rough and make 'er like it.