Nell, an independent and somewhat obstinate girl, receives an invitation to attend a dance. She asks her mother for money to buy a new dress. Her mother, a hard working woman, who has to toil from morn to night, feels that her request involves an unnecessary extravagance and she denies it. Nell answers her sharply and leaves in a sullen mood. While working in the hot, broiling sun, the mother is overcome with the heat. The doctor is called and says that unless ice is produced within two hours, the mother’s life cannot be saved. Nell determines to make amends for her harshness, mounts her pony and takes another horse as a relay. She starts for town thirty miles away, she rides like mad, secures the ice and returns upon her journey homeward. She is attacked by a desperado, who steals her horse. Inspired with the urgency of her mission and the strength of her will to fulfill it, she starts in the face of many obstacles, dangers and the distance to complete the journey on foot. Dragging what remains of the ice and toiling under the burden, she reaches the door of her home with enough remaining strength to make her presence known, falling unconscious across the doorstep. The door is opened and Nell with her precious burden is lifted into the house. The ice is applied to her mother’s head and soon she recovers from her prostration and goes to Nell, who is suffering from the efforts she made to save her mother’s life.