Frank Draper, a patriotic young American, has invented the most wonderful explosive in the world which he intends giving to the United States. In defending a pure girl from the machinations of an enemy, he is involved in a serious crime which sends him, an innocent man, to prison. Angered at this interruption to their plans and desirous of obtaining the explosive for a foreign government, international spies connive successfully at Draper's escape. They then hold him a prisoner and the young patriot is given the choice of sacrificing his own life or that of his country. He chooses the preservation of the latter, and his sands of life have almost run out, when trapped and bound, he is rescued at the eleventh hour.

Two prospectors, one the father of Sky "Lightning" Bryce and the other the father of Kate Arnold, find a large gold deposit belonging to an Indian tribe. They head for home but each sends a note to their respective off-springs advising them of their good fortune. One of the fathers conceives a plan of taking a dagger and wrapping a piece of string around the blade, after which he prints on the string with a lead pencil, the exact location of their find. If something happens to them, the string goes to the son and the knife to the daughter. That night an Indian approaches their camp and blows some mysterious wolf powder which causes a man to see wolves in place of human beings. Lightning's father see his partner as a wolf and stabs him to death; later he is brought into town in a dying condition but before dying, hands the knife and the string over to the sheriff with instructions to deliver to Lightning and Kate.

Young Southerners Buck Hineman and Remington Osbury both are in love with the same woman, who promises to marry the one who returns when the Civil War breaks out. On the battlefield, Remington is wounded and left for dead, and Buck returns to marry her. Shortly afterward, Remington returns and contents himself with becoming one of the Hineman family.