On the way to pick up the bounty on a wanted murderer, a bounty hunter stops at a staging post where he is forced to continue his journey with two outlaws who want the murderer for their own reasons and a recently-widowed woman, with the murderer's brother and his men in hot pursuit.

The cheery smile of big-hearted Ed Daton, a simple Westerner, causes a little girl to sense the thrill of happiness. Her desire for a greater measure of this, to her unknown joy, prompts her to steal away from her abusive parents and wander back to the little station known as "Lonesome." She is taken in by big Ed and the other noble herdsman and develops under the new environment to a bright and cheerful maiden. Out of gratitude, she guards the welfare of her benefactors and prompts them to nobler deeds of manhood.