Hedda, a young Italian girl, is the ranch cook. The ranchers tease her until one day she decides she will stand it no longer. She leaves them in the middle of their dinner and goes off to her favorite spot, a massive rock in the hills, to think it over. McMurtrie, the ranch boss who has been trying to close a land deal with Chief Red Eagle at the Indian agency returns about this time. Hedda comes back and says she is quitting and McMurtrie says she will not and threatens to thrash the first man who teases her again. From then on McMurtrie is Hedda's idol, but she keeps secret her love for him. The ranch owner brings McMurtrie a bag of gold to pay the Indian for the land and departs. McMurtrie becomes fascinated by the gold and battles the temptation to abscond with it. Hedda sees him and her heart is broken, to think that he's a thief at heart. She hurries to her favorite rock to figure out whether she should tell the boys or go to McMurtrie and try to dissuade him. McMurtrie decides to hide the gold under the big rock, Hedda watching from concealment. She leaves the money there and goes back to the ranch without disturbing it. Meanwhile the owner has discovered a flaw in the Indian's title and returns that evening to get the money back. McMurtrie is ready to fly and Hedda is too late to warn him. He cannot explain where the money is, except to tell the owner that it was stolen during the day. The owner will not believe him, and Hedda enters and takes the crime on her shoulders to shield McMurtrie. She talks so fast that McMurtrie has no chance to tell otherwise, and one of the ranch men coming in at the moment with the bag of money that his dog unearthed, the owner accepts her statement, and telling her she is fired and suggesting that she quit the country as well. Out at the rock McMurtrie finds Hedda and tells her that she must stay, which she agrees to do when he suggests that it be as Mrs McMurtrie.