The film follows the life story of Johann Augustus Suter, the owner of Sutter’s Mill, famous as the birthplace of the great California Gold Rush of 1848.

A young Italian girl living in the Dolomites falls in love with a member of a tourist party skiing on the nearby mountains.

In the mountains, Diotima meets Karl and fall in love and have an affair. Karl’s friend Vigo mistakenly believes she’s in love with him, causing rifts in all relationships.