Howard Sterling mate aboard his father's coasting vessel, is very much in love with Millie Sawyer. On his return from a voyage, he brings Millie a lantern which he tells her to place in her window when his ship is passing that he may know she is still thinking of him. Although she is very fond of Howard, Millie, it must be confessed, is something of a flirt. Joe Gorman, a mysterious young man with plenty of money and no visible means of support, attracts her almost as much as Howard. Gorman kisses her one day while Howard is watching. To the sailor's indignation, Millie does not appear to resent it particularly, and when he upbraids her with her fault, she grows very angry with him. Sad at heart, Howard sets out on his voyage, vowing to have nothing more to do with so fickle a girl. The mysterious Gorman is in reality the chief of a band of wreckers. With a suave smile and an easy manner he covers a disposition which is in reality savage and unscrupulous. Aroused by Millie's apparent liking for him, he lures her out on the cliffs one evening, leads her to the cave of the wreckers, and informs her that he has sent for a minister to marry them. Almost immediately thereafter, Millie discovers that a dreadful plot is on foot against Captain Sterling's schooner, and that she is a prisoner. A sudden call from the lookout directs the attention of the wreckers to the rapidly darkening ocean. Millie takes advantage of their pre-occupation and escapes. She hurries to her house and takes out Howard's lantern. Meanwhile, the wreckers have overpowered the lighthouse keeper and extinguished the light. Sterling's vessel, ignorant of its whereabouts, is rapidly bearing down on the deadly rocks on the shoreline. Suddenly a white figure passes swiftly along the cliff front, and a swinging lantern warns the vessel's crew of their danger. Captain Sterling and Howard land quickly at the wharf and make their way up to the cliff. They find Millie struggling with the enraged Gorman. Startled by their approach, the wrecker turns to flee, loses his footing, and falls to a well-merited death on the rocks below.
