Iola, the little Indian girl, is held captive by a gang of cutthroats but is soon rescued by Jack Harper, a prospector. She is truly grateful to Jack, and regards him as something different from other white people. Jack's sweetheart and her father are travellers in a wagon-train headed for this place, and, not having much luck so far, he is somewhat gloomy. Iola learns the reason, and promises to help him find gold. "Will you?" he says, "Yes." "Cross your heart?" This cross-your-heart action mystifies Iola. She thinks it is a sort of tribe insignia and tells her people that "Crossheart" people are all right. Iola surely pays her debt of gratitude, not only in finding gold, but in giving her life to protect Jack's sweetheart from her own people.

On an island in the South Seas, derelict Tony Heritage is rescued from savage natives by trader and ship captain Rod McLean, but repays him by stealing Rod’s money and fleeing to France. There, Heritage marries a young French woman named Joie Malet, but her father, Captain Jean Malet, having discovered his miscreant past, snatches Joie from the altar stairs and takes her to a South Sea island where he has been posted. Tony Heritage follows, but Capt. Malet keeps him away from Joie by giving him a job on another island, helping Rod McLean build a new trading post.

French Canadian trapper Victor Raoul returns to the trading post at St. Ignace to find a rival for the affections of Yvonne, his business partner's daughter, in the Marquis Courtière, Parisian representative of the fur company. Raoul quarrels with Fontaine over the visitor's business dealings and his attentions to Yvonne.

A Mexican is thrown out of a bar by a young prospector and swears to get even. Later, he kidnaps the prospector's wife. In the meantime, a group of drunkards shoot and kill an old Indian; The son, a brave, vows revenge and asks the tribal chief for help. When the Indians attack both prospector and Mexican, these two make a temporary truce and join forces against the common enemy.

Edith enters a convent after losing her fiancé to someone else. Years later, Edith finds him again, now poverty-stricken, and secretly helps his family.

The question is, would the young tramp really have fallen in love with the groceryman's daughter if he had not caught her in the heart struggle? Be that as it may, she could not find it in her to drown the unwelcome visitor to the pantry, so she let it go and the silent little drama witnessed by the tramp greatly impressed him. Not so the strict aunt, she declared the whole thing to be in exact accordance with everything else in the family. Their hearts ran away with their heads. That was why they lost money on credit, could not pay off the mortgage and send the sick sister to a better climate. As for the tramp, they had no business to take him in. He could not pay for his keep. But the tramp surprised them all.

A country girl follows a city suitor, but is left alone and must fend for herself.

The hero, Howard, has just married his sweetheart Mabel. Howard's ex-flame Cora remains in love with Howard, but she despises Mabel. With the help of her old acquaintance Robert, Cora breaks up Howard and Mabel's marriage. On the verge of wedding Howard herself, Cora is exposed for the viper that she is by the careless Robert.

Hank Hopkins is a "rube" of the most extreme type, and on the morning of the great Shrine Parade in Los Angeles, he is met by a couple of friends, practical jokers, who make him believe that they can effect his participating in the grand pageant. He telephones his wife to be on the grandstand to see him march by. Mrs. Hopkins receives a great disappointment, but it is slight to what Hank receives when he attempts to get into line.

Elusive as is the pursuit of pirate gold it is found in this picture and brought to the ship by the very mutineers themselves. Here fate intervenes with justice and the miscreant mate after a series of exciting adventures is outwitted through his own weakness.