A young woman, Molly Marble, is enmeshed in a train robbery by her crooked step-father. She meets a stranger, Jeff Morton, and suspects he knows where the loot is hidden. For the sake of her relatives, she must try to 'vamp' this information from him but, instead, she falls in love with him.
Jack Pepper accidentally fires his gun while forcing a newspaper editor to retract his statement regarding Miss Tulip Hellier, and the sheriff goes after Jack. While hiding out, Jack finds a liquor cache on the Hellier ranch and knows it was placed there as a ruse to distract the sheriff while an outlaw gang runs dope across the border.
U. S. Cavalry Lieutenant Ranson belittles the exploits of a bandit known as "The Red Rider," and boasts to his fellow officers that he could hold up a stagecoach with a pair of scissors. And rides out and does so. But the next day, the postmaster, returning from a neighboring town, is also held up and his bodyguard is killed. Ranson is arrested on suspicion and placed on trial. But at the trial suspicion point to Cahill, post trader, and father of Ranson's sweetheart, Mary. In order to save him, Ranson pleads guilty but, in return and knowing that his daughter loves Ranson, Cahill admits he is "The Red Rider." Meanwhile, the real "Red Rider" is still at large.
Bill Crane is a fun-loving cowboy who likes to play pranks with an Australian bull-whip, much to the dismay of his ranch-owning uncle, Pete Perry. Bill and his cousin, Jack Perry, compete for the affections of Mary Pinkleby. Jack, unknown to Bill, is also an outlaw gang-leader, known as Poncho. The latter frames Bill as being the gang leader, and now Bill has to elude the sheriff and also prove his own innocence.
Cliff Barton, suspicious of the intentions of the local banker, Seth Tolliver, withdraws his money from the bank, hides it, and is later killed by two hirelings of the banker. Deputy Sheriff Art Stratton, who has trained Barton's horse and is in love with his daughter, Thora, is assigned to guard the ranch for the creditors; and Tolliver, who has designs on the property and wants his son to marry Thora, arranges to have the ranch auctioned.
A Man Four-Square is a screen version of William McLeod Raine's popular tale of a rancher who finds himself falsely accused of murder while attempting to help a friend in need.
When Click's father is killed by a phantom bullet, he returns home to find the killer. To put the killer off guard he poses as a dude with a camera. Unknown to Click, the camera will reveal the killer's identity.
"Blizz" Ballard, summoned by the Homesteaders' League to track down a gang of cattle rustlers, arrives in Paradise Valley. In the saloon, he is taunted by Jerome Garrett, who hopes to intimidate him but is himself beaten in a fight. Ballard, after proving himself by riding an outlaw horse, is taken on at the Gregg ranch. Garrett, in the family's favor and admired by Emily, the judge's daughter, accuses Ballard of being a cattle thief, while his accomplices capture and torture the sheriff.
Cattle rancher John Drake sends his son, Ted, to the Mexican border to stop the smuggling that is using Drake's land as the crossing point. Ted meets Ysabel Castro, the daughter of the rancher just across the border-river, when he saves her from a mad-bull.
After he loses his money and horse in a poker game, Yak learns he was cheated. But then he learns that the men that cheated him are wanted and have a price on their heads. This gives him a chance to get his money back and more, so he sets out after them.
Yak arrives at the Gilmore ranch where rustling has occurred. Gilmore blames a wild horse when it is actually his foreman Mays. After Yak catches and tames the wild horse, Mays gets Yak out of the way by having him arrested for murder. Mays and his men can now make one last raid.
Carter Brace is out to murder Belden. Collins who was sent to bring in the border gang led by Brace, saves Belden's life in San Francisco. When they all reach the border, Brace tries again.
Tom Grant saves Grace Percival from being tromped by a herd of stampeding horses,led by Tony, and they become friends. Grace tells Slade, a renegade who has been trying to capture Tony, the leader of the wild horses, that Tom has promised to capture Tony for her. Not if Slade has anything to say about he isn't.
Robert Kane, owner of the Bar-L Ranch, has received word from his attorney that he will have to marry Ann Scott before the 15th of the month, whom he has never met, or else lose the title to the Vista Water Company, which Ann has inherited under the condition that she be married. There is dirty-work afoot, instigated by a lawyer.
Bradley Blatchford, returning to his father's ranch from college, meets Sybil Hamilton, who is coming to the ranch town as a schoolteacher. Later, Bradley's father is suspected of rustling cattle, but he denies the charge. As the romance develops between Bradley and Sybil, Bradley comes upon a rustler at work and is about to shoot when he discovers his own father, who claims he is victim of a hereditary taint that he cannot subdue. Some friends, who observe the incident, rustle some of Blatchford's cattle, mark it with Sybil's brand, and accuse her of rustling and hiding some dark secret. She confesses that her brother disgraced the family, and when George learns of it, he is forgiven and is reunited with her.