The great fear that they cannot keep up the interest on the mortgage on their little home and few acres of land, has burdened the Bensons for years. Bradley, who holds the mortgage, is a brutal money-grabber and hounds the family continually. The father dies, leaving his widow, Kate, and Ben, their son, to keep up the interest. After sacrificing almost every cent they can make and scrape, the boy returns home one day and finds Bradley has taken his dog. Broken hearted, the lad goes to Bradley, demands his dog back and is brutally refused. That night the boy hears Bradley tell his mother she must apprentice Benny out to him and pay the interest through the boy's labor. Kate dares not refuse and Bradley gives her money to bind the bargain. The boy, realizing that a life with Bradley means cruelty and abuse, runs away. In the hills he finds his dog and thinks of his mother striving alone to keep up the interest on the mortgage and decides to go back. Bradley sees him, confronts Mrs. Benson and demands the boy. Awakened at last to the true sense of protective motherhood, Kate seizes a rifle and when he starts for the loft, where Benny is hiding, she convinces the rascal she would shoot him without the slightest compunction. He cringes and she, giving him back his money, orders him out. Kate now thoroughly aroused says, "This time we will run away together," and leaving the old farm to Bradley's greedy clutches, the dawn of a new day finds them driving over the hills, bravely facing the possibilities of the future.
