Carmelita Carrito, a young Mexican girl, is an aristocrat at heart despite the coarseness exhibited by her father Carpi.
Although she has a lover named Pepo, Carmelita finds herself attracted to the bandit Leopoldo Juares when he takes refuge in her house. After his departure, Carmelita watches wistfully after him, eventually falling asleep by the window.
A U. S. Army officer, William Jerome, comes searching for Juares, and Carmelita, fascinated by the gringo, tells him that Juares is to meet her at the brook. Discovering her duplicity, Juares forces Carmelita to don his hat and coat. Jerome, mistaking Carmelita for the bandit, shoots the girl and is ordered to be executed before a firing squad.
Carmelita then awakens from her dream and discovers that United States troops, led by Pepo, are converging upon her house to arrest Juares, who is hiding there. Pepo captures the bandit and wins a large reward as well as Carmelita's affections.
Like many American films of the time, Betrayed was subject to cuts by city and state film censorship boards. The Chicago Board of Censors cut an attack on a man, shooting and two rioting scenes in store, attack on driver, shooting man off horse, last part of love scene, and shooting girl and shooting man.[3]
