Fay Reynolds, a landscape artist, receives an order from Wadsworth for a picture, bordering on the primitive. She goes to the mountains to find a subject. There with Ranee, a lazy mountain fellow, as guide, she starts off in her search. Wadsworth, recuperating from a nervous collapse, visits his father's friend of pioneer days. While chopping down a tree, he becomes aware of Fay and Ranee. Fay, thinking him a mountaineer, offers him five dollars if he will pose. Ranee has wandered away and finds some whiskey. Fay suddenly looks up to confront a lion, crouched ready to spring upon her. Terrified, she rushes to the camp. Ranee attacks her. Wadsworth sees Fay and Ranee struggling on top of a cliff. Rushing to them, he fights with the drunken fellow. Ranee falls over the cliff. Fay discovers Wadsworth's identity and all ends happily.