At the outbreak of the Civil War, a poor Kentucky moonshiner named "Kaintuck" Cass tries to enlist in a Confederate company led by wealthy Southern officer Marley Calvert, but he is insulted and turned away. Kaintuck joins a band of guerillas, and, after the war's end, leads a riot on a town near the Calvert estate. Because Calvert's daughter Molly had once treated him kindly, Kaintuck protects her and then flees to a new life in the West. There he again encounters Molly while she visits Calvert and his partner, Graham Lyons, whose venture into the mining business has made them greedy and unscrupulous. When Graham tries to attack Molly, Kaintuck forgets his old bitterness toward the Calverts and intervenes to protect her honor, but in the struggle, he is shot. Just then the sheriff appears in search of Kaintuck, whom he has learned is a fugitive, and although a grateful Calvert hides Kaintuck in the loft, he is discovered when a drop of his blood falls into the sheriff's drink. Molly's warning saves Kaintuck's life, and later they are married.