Dan Claibourne refuses to fight against his state when Tennessee secedes during the Civil War preliminaries. His sweetheart brands him a traitor. Dan joins Morgan's raiders of the Confederate Army and gets an opportunity to rescue the girl during a raid.
Ranch owner Tex McCloud is convinced there is oil under his property and brings in a drilling rig and equipment to drill for it. But a gang who wants the property wage a sabotage and theft war against him.
Mickey rides up to a cantina and does a tango with Minnie. When a big cat steals her away, Mickey gives chase, riding a drunken ostrich. At the hideout, Mickey has a swordfight with the cat.
Army Sergeant Mickey Dunn sets out in pursuit of the Cisco Kid, a notorious if kind-hearted and charismatic bandit of the Old West. The Kid spends much of his loot on Tonia, the woman he loves, not realizing that she is being unfaithful to him in his absence. Soon, with her oblivious paramour off plying his trade, Tonia falls in with Dunn, drawn by the allure of a substantial reward for the Kid's capture -- dead or alive. Together, they concoct a plan to ambush and do away with the Cisco Kid once and for all.
Texas Ranger Bill Storm is sent to El Paso to ferret out a gang of counterfeiters thought to be working there and, on the way, gives a ride to New York socialite Beverly Dix, whose car has been wrecked on the road to El Paso. Bill quickly comes to suspect Earl Hanway and Lefty Waterman of passing bad bills; taking Beverly's father into his confidence, Bill identifies the counterfeiting plant, arrests Hanway and Waterman, and finds himself with his arms full of Beverly.
Jimmy Marshall, an adventurous youth, wanders in disguise into a small Mexican town seeking adventure. Captured by bandits he fights his way to freedom and meets the girl of his dreams.
Wrongfully convicted rancher Jack Bowen (Neal Hart), imprisoned through the machinations of Dick Thompson (William Quinn), escapes from prison just as the warden (Charles Wellesley) is about to pardon him. Caught after rescuing the warden’s daughter, Betty (Barbara Kent) from her runaway carriage, Bowen is released despite the escape attempt and moves to Calgary to compete in the Stampede. Thompson tries to have Bowen killed during the competition but failing that takes Betty as a hostage and flees. Bowen, Betty’s father and others give chase.
The story is set in Africa, where a band of cowboys, headed by Mix, embark on a search for their missing employer. They are accompanied in this venture by the boss' daughter, played by Sally Blane (sister of actress Loretta Young).
Bill Mathews mistakenly comes to believe that his sweetheart, Sally Brown, prefers the company of his brother, Henry, to that of his own and dejectedly goes to the city, where he finds work driving a truck. Six months later Bill returns home; that very day, the Delno gang robs the bank and kidnaps Sally. Bill follows the outlaws in a plane and parachutes into their mountain hideout; he captures Delno's men and rescues Sally, who quickly convinces him that she has never loved another.
Hal Doyle, son of the prison warden, falls in love with a portrait of Mollie Dare, who runs a reformatory for ex-convicts where they may work for honest wages. To win the girl he poses as the notorious Tucson Joe and goes to the reformatory where his reputation causes the other men to fear him. The real Tucson Joe arrives but does not reveal his identity.
A young woman named Remington (Ann Howe) arrives out West and soon meets the old man known as Wilbur (Val Harris). Soon after the brief introductions we get Wilbur's stories on romance and women while Remington does a dance.
An otherwise honest gambler, played by Jack Holt, begins to cheat at cards in order to put his son John Darrow through mining school in this lavish Zane Grey adaptation produced by Paramount. The callow foster-son pays back the noble gesture by running off with Holt's mistress, Olga Baclanova.
After a work crew stringing telegraph wires across the Great Plains is slaughtered by Indians, Pat O'Leary, the company superintendent, must take out another supply train to make the dangerous trip across open country. The Indians attack and are driven off. On the day the wires are finally strung, the settlers gather to hear the first message from the East.
A boy's father is an unjustly accused fugitive, and the boy's scheming uncle plots to become the youngster's guardian and take over the family fortune.