As detailed in film magazines,[2][3] the film is set in the Florida Everglades in 1901, at which point state law permitted citizens to employ convicts. Mary Lane (Minter) is the last heiress of a southern family, whose inheritance consists of a plot of land. Manning and Dempster, representatives of competing real estate firms, bid to buy this land. Dempster schemes to buy the land at a price far below its worth, and when a neighbour discovers, Dempster shoots the neighbour and frames Manning for the crime. Manning is found guilty and sentenced to hard labour.
Mary, who has fallen in love with Manning and does not believe him to be guilty, convinces the governor to let her employ him on her estate. Meanwhile, a fight between Dempster and a witness to the murder, and a dying confession, result in the evidence of Manning's innocence. The film ends with Manning's release, his marriage to Mary, and the promise of their happy future on the plot of land, which they have decided to keep.
