Silas Croft was a kindly old Englishman who had a farm in South Africa. With him resided his two nieces, whom he had taken from their drunken, worthless father when they were of a tender age.
Alkali is considered the ranch seamstress by the boys on Hard-Up, and consequently has to sew buttons on coats and do other sewing stunts that finally wear on his nerves and decide him on the matrimony thing.
A rich man who finds that there is nothing in life worth living for, is worse off than is a poor man in similar circumstances, for the poor man may he stricken with ambition, and in a last effort to attain fame and fortune, redeems himself.
Esmeralda Foster, an attractive girl, is very much impressed with Duncan Miller, a crafty country swain, who makes love to Esmeralda because of her father's wealth.