A college graduate returns West after ten years in the East to her home in Sulfur Springs. Virginia's mother, the owner of a rooming house has turned hard and uncaring in her absence and the girl finds comfort in her friendship with Ross Cavanagh, a forest ranger. The latter runs afoul of cattle baron Sam Gregg, who resents a new tax on cattle grazing on government land.
Ed Wetherford becomes an outlaw and, to escape imprisonment, abandons his wife Eliza and daughter Virginia. After attending college in the East, Virginia returns to California, where she meets and falls in love with Ross Cavanaugh, a United States ranger.
