During the Alaskan gold rush, two unscrupulous fortune-seekers, Amy and her husband Gambler Joe, rob Mathew Smith, who has offered them shelter from a snow storm. Mathew pursues them but loses his way, and by the time Harkness finds him, he is nearly dead from exposure. Mathew, nicknamed "Silent" Smith because the storm has robbed him of his voice, lives in friendship with Harkness until the latter marries Amy, who has found employment in a local dance hall.