George and Charles Wendell find they both love Clara Palmer and she is not disposed to show favor to either. To set their minds at rest they ask her to choose between them. Frivolous and shallow, with no desire to lose the attentions of either man, she tells them both to seek a fortune for her and she promises to marry the most successful. Charles, the younger brother, realized that punching cattle is a very slow method of accumulating wealth and starts for the mountains to try his hand at mining. George remains at the ranch and wins favor with the fickle maiden. Charles, in his quest in the mountains, becomes injured and is succored by an old miner, known as the “Hermit of the Hills.” The hermit takes him to his cave and tenderly nurses him back to health and strength. The old hermit has accumulated a fortune in gold ore and Charles discovers its hiding place. Filled only with thoughts of Clara and her promise, Charles assaults his benefactor unawares, and, leaving him for dead, returns to the ranch with the hermit’s gold. Clara transfers her favor from George to Charles, when he shows her the gold he has stolen from the hermit. George knows that Charles could never have mined the great fortune he claims to have acquired in the short time he has been away, and accuses him of theft. Charles denies it and is upheld by Clara. Charles at last acknowledges his guilt and agrees to return the gold. Together the brothers go to the hermit’s cave in the mountains to find that the blow inflicted by Charles has made the hermit insane. Charles returns the gold and goes back to the ranch, leaving George to care for the poor demented man. George cares for the hermit until his death and in gratitude for his kindness the old hermit leaves the gold to him. Charles on his return to the ranch goes to Clara, whose sympathy was with him when George compelled him to return the gold, but now meets only with her scorn and he at last realizes that his crime has availed him nothing. Clara determines to go to George, and starts for the hermit’s cave alone. She comes upon George seated near the cave and pleads her love. George, who has learned her shallow nature, gives her that which she seeks, the gold that has made his brother a criminal and encompassed the hermit’s death. Taking the one remaining sack he throws it in a shower on the hermit’s grave and returns to civilization unsullied by the curse of gold.