Onita, an Indian princess, discovers a red eagle and tells her father and Brave Heart, her lover. The chief declares that the one who kills the red eagle shall marry his daughter. Jim Smith, a half breed, admires Onita. She repulses him and he tries to overpower her. Brave Heart, taking his bow and arrow, starts out to kill the bird. He sees it perched on a cliff, shoots his arrow and the bird falls dead, thereby breaking the baleful charm. The young brave hastens with the dead eagle to the wigwam of Onita's father and claims the princess as his wife. A week after their marriage, they are living in their own wigwam, when she spies the dead eagle's mate. Jim Smith follows the girl to her new home and while she is engaged in beading, he takes off his coat, throws it over her head and bears her struggle away. Making his way to the edge of a cliff, he climbs down the jagged side with Onita, tied hands and feet, in his arms, making a most perilous descent, until he reaches a projecting ledge and lays the helpless princess down. Brave Heart kills the red eagle's mate and as it falls down the cliff it passes Smith, who startled, loses his balance and falls in a lifeless mass on the rocks below, beside the gurgling rapids. Brave Heart looks over the cliff, sees Onita, makes his way down the steep side of the precipice, and when he reaches her, removes her bonds, clasps her to his arms and raises his eyes toward Heaven in gratitude and thanksgiving to the Great Father.