- Striving to maintain the dignity of the old Southern home, Molly Claiborne begs her brother, Douglas, to stop dissipating. He persists, however, and steals the income check, her only means of support. Fearing that they have murdered Randolph Porter, whom they have assaulted while drunk, Douglas and his companion in dissipation, Jackson Larabee, escape to the west. They read in the papers of Jerry Mason and the fortunes he has made in Rhylote, Nevada. So they make that town their goal. In the newspaper Molly sees a picture of Jerry Mason and reads his career. He becomes her inspiration, and she feels that Douglas will make good just as he has done. Meanwhile, the mortgage on the home is foreclosed, and the old Claiborne house is sold. Molly must support herself. In Nevada. Jerry and Jackson Larabee continue their dissipation. Mining for gold means work, and that is not to their liking. Jerry Mason befriends Douglas, and offers lo take him prospecting, but Douglas sticks to the old path. He returns to the faro table and the bar. In need of funds, Douglas telegraphs Molly that he has struck it rich and needs money to strike a claim. With a firm faith in her brother, Molly sends him her sayings. Misled by Douglas's telegram, Molly believes that be will now be able to care for her and so, leaves for Rhylote. Meanwhile, in a drunken brawl, Jackson Larabee kills Douglas using an old pick handle belonging to Jerry Mason to do the deed. Molly arrives in Rhylote, and Jerry, who knows her from a photograph which Douglas carried with him, gives over his cabin to her and her old mammy, Aunt Fanny. In the short period of their acquaintance a love springs up between them and Jerry's kindness to her makes her love grow daily. Jerry has struck it rich again, and goes to San Francisco to have his specimens assayed. Meanwhile, the fatal pick handle bearing his name bus cast suspicion of the murder upon him. To shield himself, Jackson Larabee organizes a lynching party. On his return, Jerry is surrounded, and the party prepares for the lynching. Molly, informed of this, is overwrought by the thought that Jerry is her brother's murderer. But Nell, a barroom maid, the only one who has seen the murder committed, tells her the truth and Molly returns to the scene of the banging just in time to save from an unjust fate. Larabee receives his just due, and Molly falls into the arms of Jerry, to be protected by him forever.—Moving Picture World synopsis
- Southern girl Molly Claiborne (Grace Williams) comes from a poor but aristocratic family. Her reckless brother, Douglas, gets himself in trouble and has to leave town. He heads west, straightens up and tries prospecting with Jerry Mason (Curtis Cooksey). But soon enough, Douglas returns to his old ways and is killed in a drunken brawl. Molly, after hearing how well her brother was doing, is already on her way West to see him. Mason meets her at the station, and tries to keep her from discovering her brother's death. But she finds out eventually, and when the weapon -- the handle of a pick ax -is found, it has Mason's initials carved on it. Mason is in danger of being lynched for the crime, but a worker at the gambling den reveals that the killer is a former partner of Douglas's. Mason's name is cleared, and Molly, grateful for his attempts to help her brother, marries him.
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