Gordon Clay, a young married man, leaves his wife and child to enlist in the Confederate army. As one of a scouting party he is ordered to scale a cliff and look for the enemy. A young Union lieutenant looking through his spyglasses sees Clay. He makes a bet with his brother officers that he will hit that "Johnny Reb." He borrows a rifle, fires, and Clay rolls down the precipice, dead. We see the poor wife waiting for his return. A comrade of Clay's enters and tells her that her husband died in the performance of his duty.
—Moving Picture World synopsis