Dan Burke, newly-arrived in the Yukon, is ridiculed as a tenderfoot when he attempts to find the pocket of flat gold (gold that is black, soft, and flat "like coins from the mints of hell") which Old Man Chaudiare, to keep its location secret, has not claimed. After Dan and his dog team encounter a blizzard, they are saved when Chaudiare and his daughter Aline hear the dogs howl. As Aline nurses Dan, they fall in love, even though he thinks that her mother is an Indian. After Dan thrashes Clay Hibbing, who earlier attacked Aline for refusing to disclose the mine's location, Hibbing and his pal Reirdon find the mine. Dan, although suspected of committing Hibbing's murder of Reirdon, also discovers the mine and races against Hibbing to claim it for Chaudiare. Hibbing freezes to death, Chaudiare makes Dan his partner, Dan is found innocent of killing Reirdon, and Aline, upon learning that she is not a half-breed, marries Dan.