Claude Maughan, an Englishman, finding his late uncle has been swindled in a Canadian land deal, sets out to punish the land agent, Daniel Corfield. As soon as he arrives at Medicine Hat, he gets involved in the intricacies of Canadian life, and his adventures begin. There is his desperate fight with a prairie fire; his encounter with Inspector Barker, of the North-West Mounted Police; his meeting with Julia Kingsley, and how he saves her life in a dust storm; the disappearance of Julia's fiancé, Archie Wampole, and his determination to pocket the five thousand dollars reward Archie's father is offering for the return of his son.