Escaped convict Jeff Carter is chased through a swamp in the South by Detective Rance, who vows to bring in the fugitive dead or alive. In the same area, gambler "Flash" Brand comes to the Tollington general store looking for Annabelle Tollington, whom he knows as a burlesque performer at Spratt's Casino, but her brother Jed, his wife Mary, and their friend, Pete Oliver, have not seen Annabelle in years. Jed's excitable younger daughter Lizbet comes in shortly after, and is thrilled by the wedding dress her fiancé Pete has given her. Lizbet takes the outfit back to her private cabin and tries it on, then uses a folkloric prayer to identify her true love by looking into the mirror. When she sees Jeff's face reflect from the window, she runs after the fugitive and rescues him. Later, Annabelle returns home unexpectedly and flirts with her old flame Pete, whom she left for the "outside" world, but Pete rejects her. The next day, Jeff tries to leave so he will not implicate Lizbet, but she has fallen in love with him and insists that he stay until she gets him a boat. Annabelle then visits Pete at his still, and learns that blind Tod Appleby, who used to deliver liquor to Spratt's Casino, overheard her in a conversation on the night Spratt was murdered. After Annabelle catches sight of Jeff at Lizbet's cabin, she warns Pete that Lizbet is making a fool of him, and when Lizbet returns from her outing, she finds Jeff unconscious from a beating by Pete. As she cradles Jeff's head in her arms, Pete realizes that she has matured into womanhood. Surprisingly, Jeff, who was convicted of killing Spratt, defends Pete, who regrets his brutality and assists Jeff into the cabin. The next morning, Pete tells Lizbet that he is no good for her and calls off their wedding. Although Pete and Annabelle are tight-lipped when Rance questions them, Rance later finds Jeff and Lizbet. Jeff does not resist arrest, but Lizbet steers Rance in the path of an animal trap and Rance's leg is caught. Jeff refuses to leave Rance injured, and they take the detective to the general store for treatment. Annabelle confronts Brand, who had implicated her in his alibi the night Spratt was killed, and Brand confesses what really happened that night: He is sitting in the casino when Jeff has an argument with Spratt about a crooked game. Jeff follows Spratt into his office to discuss the matter, and when he leaves, Brand slips into the office unnoticed. Brand beats Spratt to death with a poker from the fireplace, and shortly after, Tod pokes his head in to speak to Spratt, but Brand sends him away. Brand concludes his story and admits that he later lied to Annabelle and convinced her to say that they were talking in the alley when Spratt was killed. Annabelle realizes that Brand has come to kill Tod, the only witness to his crime. At the general store, Annabelle tells Rance about Brand, then brings the unsuspecting Brand inside. Rance accuses Brand of killing Spratt because Spratt had incriminating information about him. When Annabelle brings Tod in, Brand takes her hostage, but is shot by Rance. Pete now realizes that Annabelle left him because she was embroiled in Brand's deception, and they embrace. Jeff promises to return to the swamp for Lizbet after he is cleared of the murder charges.