Sheriff Jim Taylor loves Elsie, daughter of Ranchman White. Elsie, however, has given her promise to Tom, driver of the pony express. Tom gets into a quarrel with Wild Cat, an Indian. The latter is found dead and the express driver is arrested. Elsie alone believes him innocent. On the day set for the hanging, Mojave Ed, a worthless character, falls ill of fever in the mountains. Fearing to die, he sends for the sheriff and confesses to him. Sheriff realizes that his hope of winning Elsie now is lost, that is, if he chooses to prove the express driver's innocence. As he stands, later that day, with the hang rope in his hand, Big Jim finds that he cannot bring himself to seek by such means his own happiness. He relates Mojave Ed's confession, Tom is freed, and the lovers reunited.
—Moving Picture World synopsis