Mary Lee breaks her engagement with Jim, her penniless suitor, to marry Carroll, a wealthy miner. Later Carroll loses his fortune and abuses Mary. While prospecting, he meets Jim, who is returning across the desert to civilization with a burro laden with gold. Carroll shoots Jim and leaves him for dead. Carroll returns home and packs up, telling Mary that he is going to leave her now that he has gold enough to have a good time in town. Mary shoots after him as he leaves and punctures his water can. Carroll, when far in the desert, discovers that his water is gone. Later his burro, frightened by a rattlesnake, bolts and returns across the desert to Carroll's cabin. Carroll succumbs to thirst in the desert. Meanwhile Jim, badly wounded, drags himself to Carroll's cabin, where Mary nurses him back to health.