Thomas Lowry, a wealthy Western ranch-owner, realizing he is dying, leaves his adopted daughter, Jane, to the care of his head shepherd, who because of his personality is called “Silent.” The young people decide to marry when Sinclair, a nephew of Lowry, comes west, and learning of the fortune Jane inherits, decides to marry her. She listens to his descriptions of the wonderful east and promises to become his wife. Silent warns Sinclair that he will pay for any mistreatment of Jane with his life. Sinclair brings Jane east, and after squandering her fortune deserts her and she dies of a broken heart. Sinclair returns west to sell the balance of Jane’s property and meets “Silent,” who reminds him of the warning; in the desperate struggle that follows they plunge over the balcony of an old ruin to death below, thus ending the career of good and evil.