Trader Ned Stewart's father Graehme was unjustly accused of adultery and killed. Ned sets out to avenge his father but is captured and send on "la longue traverse," the long journey to death. Virginia saves Ned, and the villain confesses Graehme's innocence on his deathbed.

Trading post operator Galen Albret becomes lost during a journey in the wilds of Canada. He seeks shelter with Jock Wilson and soon falls in love with his daughter Elodie. Galen and Elodie elope and are married by a minister, incurring the enmity of Rand, a former suitor of Elodie's, who vows revenge. Rand goes to Galen's trading post and secures a position through Elodie's intercession, but there he devises his scheme of revenge. Elodie innocently asks Rand to deliver a beaded bag and an affectionate message to her father, but instead Rand hides it in the camp of widower Graeham Stewart. Rand next asserts Elodie's infidelity to Galen who, as the local authority, sentences Stewart to the treacherous "Long Journey" in the wilderness. Stewart dies on the trip and his young son Ned is sent to the home of distant relatives. Twenty years later, Galen is a prosperous trading post operator, but Elodie has died, leaving him with a daughter, Virginia. Ned, who has entered into forbidden territory, is captured by the Indians and sentenced to the "Long Journey" but is aided by Virginia, who has fallen in love with him, and Picard, one of Galen's men. Because Rand has seen Picard give Ned a gun, he tries to force Picard's sweetheart, Julie, into becoming his wife by threatening to incriminate Picard. Julie shoots Rand who, in his dying words, exonerates the Stewarts from any wrongdoing. Galen then relents and decides to aid Ned who by now has reached civilization. Because he realizes that Virginia loves Ned, he sends her to him so that they may begin a new life in the wilderness.