Duty places one under obligations which even friendships and our closest relations with others cannot destroy. Joe Cooper, when he accepted the nomination and was elected sheriff of his county, did not think that he would be called upon to prove this by the following unhappy circumstances: Joe is very much in love with Lillie Rowe and a friend of her brother, Lincoln Rowe. Lincoln is of a quarrelsome and sullen disposition, very hot tempered and obstinate, taking kindly to a "Jolly" and always ready to resent any opposition or interference. In a fit of anger he kills a man and tries to escape from the clutches of the law by making all speed for the timbers. The friends of the dead man get together and notify the sheriff, Joe Cooper, who finds himself in a quandary between love and duty when he hears who the guilty man is, but declares the law shall be enforced. At the head of the posse, Joe is seen in pursuit of the fugitive and naturally concludes that he has gone home. Finding Lillian Rowe alone, he tells her of her brother's crime, and. when she learns of this, she urges Joe to do his duty regardless of his relation to her. With a parting embrace, the sheriff rushes from the house and the posse are again on the trail of his sweetheart's brother, with whom they come in range and exchange a volley of shots, one from the sheriff's gun fatally wounds the escaping man, who, by a circuitous route reaches his home and falls dying. His sister tries to relieve his sufferings; Joe Cooper, with his vigilants, arrives on the scene. Joe enters the house, tenderly looks at the boy who grasps his hand, and tells his sister to forgive Joe, as he was only doing his duty in the name of the law. Bidding his sister farewell, the poor lad passes beyond the penalty of earthly courts. Joe sympathetically extends his arms to Lillie, shares her sorrow, declaring his love and readiness to protect her from the world.
—Moving Picture World synopsis