When Easter Hicks, a Kentucky mountain girl, becomes infatuated with Clayton, a civil engineer from the city, her father Pap Hicks vows to kill Clayton. Sherd Raines, a young mountaineer who loves Easter, prevails upon Pap to reconsider, but Sherd is finally overcome by jealousy and begins to mold a bullet to kill his rival. As he prepares the mold, Sherd hears a preacher's voice denounce him for his evil intentions and he spills the hot metal.