A British army officer, Captain James Wingate, is left disgraced when he takes the blame for his cousin Henry's misappropriation of the regiment's charitable fund.

A local bootlegger, Cash Hawkins, wants James' land as a smuggling route from Mexico, and also tries to force a beautiful Indian woman, Naturich, to his will.

James longs desperately to return to England, and is agonized by what might have been with Diana; however, he remains true to Naturich and introduces her as his wife to the surprised guests.

Later, Sir John convinces James to let him take Hal back with him to England, where the boy will be educated in the finest schools and become worthy to inherit the earldom.

Naturich sneaks back in time to see her son depart; she goes into the boy's room, and, as James has a standoff at gunpoint with the sheriff on the front steps, she shoots herself, holding the wooden horse she made for Hal.

DeMille was keen to remake his earlier successes and was the driving force behind the project, at a time when a cycle of big-budget Western films In Old Arizona, Billy the Kid and The Big Trail were being released.