Roger Hartland, heir to his father's accumulated fortune, is already a young man weary of the world. He is rescued from his life in New York City by Fredericks, Hartland's English butler who had long served Roger's father. Hartland is taken by Fredericks to Silver City in the Little Rockies of Montana where he owns a large silver mine, the Yellow Jacket, the only actual business among his late father's investments. The mine is holding its own, but to show a profit it will be necessary to sink a shaft into what may be rich copper deposits. It is a speculative proposition. Hartland knows nothing about mining, but after he becomes embroiled with rival mine owners and kills a gunman by whom he is attacked, he realizes that he is going to have to learn a lot, and learn it quickly.