Jack Bannister returns to his home in South America, bringing with him some Wyoming cowboys. At a fiesta, he meets Menocal, an old friend, who is murdered moments later by Bud Latham, an American bandit under the protection of the local sheriff, a rascal named Berengo. Jack sets out after Latham and finds the killer trailing another outlaw, José Remado. Jack catches up with Latham and whips him in a brutal fight.
Patrick Angus O'Toole is a military officer assigned to investigate a gang of gunrunners operating near Fort Sumner in the Dakota Bad Lands. At the fort, O'Toole comes to the aid of Mary Owen, who is being harassed by Captain Blake. The irate Blake gives Mary's cowardly brother, Hal, 24 hours to pay his gambling debt. In desperation, Hal robs the Pony Express, a crime for which O'Toole is arrested.
Girl's father who is in sore financial straits because of a corporation man is aided by stranger who reveals that his father was ruined same way by the same person. When this man is found dead suspicion falls on girl's father but the employer of murdered man confesses.
Richard Gilmore, a staid Wall Street broker, is jilted by Dot Parkhurst when he fails to provide her with the romance and adventure that she wants out of life. Richard then goes west in an effort to prove himself a man and becomes a highwayman known as "The Meddler," robbing people only to return to them all that he stole, keeping only a valueless memento for himself.
Jack Holt, Billie Dove, and Noah Beery Sr., who starred together in Wanderers of the Wasteland, appear together again. Madeline Hammond, the sister of ranchman Al Hammond, arrives from the East. Gene Stewart, a rough and rowdy cowboy, convinces Madeline to marry him while he is on a drunken spree. Madeline sets out to reform him, and he sets out to rid their little section of the West of a band of outlaws.
Jim Marlow's brother, Chet, who has come west to manage the family mining properties, cheats Pete Daley out of his property. Pete enters Chet's office at night and robs the safe, being seen in the act by Tom Crowley. Pete hides the strongbox and sends a letter to his daughter, Marion, stating its location. Jim gets the letter and finds the strongbox, running afoul of Crowley, who shoots him. The sheriff arrests Jim for stealing the box, and Crowley attempts to take the box from the sheriff at gunpoint. The sheriff shoots Crowley, and Crowley, mortally wounded, tells the sheriff that Pete Daley was the man responsible for the original theft of the box. A lawyer who has been investigating Chet discovers that he has cheated Jim out of the substantial part of his rightful inheritance; Chet is sent to jail, and Jim settles down with Marion Daley.
A mining camp girl attempts to reform a young derelict addicted to drink. Colleen Moore broke her neck in a fall from a moving handcar during the making of this rousing sagebrush melodrama. The pert Moore, an idol of her generation, quickly regained her mobility but was reportedly forced to sleep in a leather neck support for nearly ten years.
In Red Gulch Tom is married to Nell and has a daughter. He is shot by cardsharp Jim, who runs off with Nell. The little daughter, found wandering on the prairie by two wolf hunters, is adopted and named Prairie Nell. Fifteen years later, she is the pride of Bar X, when Tom returns, shoots Jim, and finds his daughter.
In order to arouse the jealousy of Philip Steele, a wealthy young man who is infatuated with her, Isobel Becker introduces her father to him as her husband. Steele is bitterly disappointed and before Isobel can explain her little joke, he leaves and joins the Northwest Mounted Police, in which he soon distinguishes himself. He is assigned to bring in Bucky Nome, a notorious gambler and lecher who is wanted for murder. Colonel Becker, Isobel's wealthy father, is interested in the fur business and goes to Canada, taking her with him. Bucky wrecks the pleasure train on which they are riding and kidnaps Isobel. Steele eventually catches up with Bucky, bringing him to justice and rescuing Isobel. The subdued girl explains her joke, and Steele resigns from the force, again taking his place in polite society.
Don Cesar De Vega crosses swords with a vicious member of the Queen's Guard, and steals the affection of a young heiress. When the officer frames the young upstart for murder, Don Cesar fakes his own death and retreats to the crumbling ruins of the family castle he plots his vengeance.
When Bill Croft, a notorious gunfighter, is bushwhacked, innocent rancher Frank Douglas is accused of the crime on circumstantial evidence and sentenced to be hanged. Jack Douglas, Frank's son, sets out to prove his father's innocence with the help of Jean, the murdered man's daughter; Jack eventually apprehends the killer and forces him to confess, but the sheriff is unable to stop the execution without an official pardon.
Two men claiming to be scientists arrive in Arizona looking for Blair, a fellow scientist who disappeared while developing a death ray. The men hire Jim Wilson, who finds Blair living with his daughter on a ranch in an inaccessible valley near the Grand Canyon, where the scientist is testing his ray on birds and wild animals.
Oscar has been sent to the plains to make a man of himself, is soon visited by his sister Sybil Estabrook, who travels west along with her maid in tow. Oscar, who has been losing at cards to Victor Dufresne, is forced by him to rob a stagecoach in order to pay off his gambling debts.