Plot

Broken-hearted, Count Castel dies, leaving a will which completely disinherits his dissipated son Charles and the Countess Castel. His entire fortune goes to his beloved daughter, Marie, with the strict provision that she is never to allow the control of the property to pass from her. Shortly after, John Ruggles, a mining engineer, leases the marble quarries on the Castel estate. He falls in love with Marie, who reciprocates the affection. The brother Charles, meanwhile, has involved himself with an unscrupulous banker named Samuels, who, learning that Charles is disinherited, conspires with the mother and brother against Marie. This plot is overheard by Marie and she flies, panic-stricken, into the forest, where Ruggles finds her hours later. He places her in charge of his aunt. In the interim, the trio locate Marie, and after a struggle, forcibly take her home. Ruggles is then assaulted and left to die in an old, deserted building. He escapes by an ingenious trick and gathering his mine workers together, hastens to the rescue of Marie. He arrives just as the girl, her determination undermined by the events of the past few weeks, is about to sign away the Castel estates to the sharper Samuels. How Ruggles solved the difficult problem and rendered both mercy and justice makes a highly sensational climax to a thoroughly interesting story.—Moving Picture World synopsis