Dan Harrow is a young man who goes to work on the Erie Canal. He works on several boats until he finally gets his own. He shacks up with his cook Molly for a year and wins a big fight with Klore, Molly’s former lover. He repeatedly meets Calash, a famous outlaw, and Henderson, the law who’s chasing him. Dan decides to leave the canal and be a farmer. Because of this, Molly decides to leave him.