'Red' Bowman is a worthless renegade, an alleged rustler, to whom fate has been unduly kind to allow him to escape so long the honest judgment and double earned punishment. His daughter, a curly-headed ragged little sunbeam, keeps house for him as best she can, accepting with model fortitude her brutal father's blows and lashings. When he beats her too mercilessly she runs away, if she can, to hide until his anger cools. One day he is interrupted in his amusement of "lickin' the kid" by a group of stern, determined cowboys, who threaten to lynch him if he dares whip the little girl again. 'Red' slinks away and postpones the lashing for another time. That night, he and a pal, another black-hearted scoundrel, make a raid on a bunch of cattle, but are caught in the act.