Dan Dawson hires on at the Mason ranch where he wins the affection of Ruth and alienates Frank Macy who gets fired. Later, on Dan and Ruth's wedding day, the cowhands bring Macy, now an outlaw and escaping the Sheriff disguised as a preacher, to perform the ceremony. But upon leaving Macy loses part of his disguise and Dan now recognizing him gives chase.
On a passenger train passing through the desert, Louise offers to pay the fares of Happy Hobo and Collie. The boy Collie accepts, but Happy continues on foot and finds on a dying man a map to a gold mine and a photograph of his daughter, who is none other than Louise.
Sergeant Bob Steele (Bob Custer), of the Texas Rangers, is assigned to put an end to the lawlessness of a gang of outlaws led by a mysterious man known as 'The Black Hawk.' Hoping to infiltrate the gang, he poses as an outlaw named "Lightning" Brady.
The border bandit Severn is after Estrada's money. He not only gets Estrada to promise his daughter to him in marriage but he also convinces him that Dave Marshall is the bandit. When Dave shows up to expose Severn, he is jailed.
When his wife is killed by the evil Marques de Bazan, Spanish army officer Dorando becomes a notorious outlaw known as El Bandolero. He kidnaps Bazan's son Ramon and has him raised by one of his own men. When Ramon grows up to be a man he meets and falls in love with El Bandolero's beautiful daughter Petra. Bandolero forbids his daughter from seeing Ramon, so Ramon leaves to become a bullfighter. A vengeful young woman he has spurned sets up Ramon to be gored by a vicious young bull. Complications ensue.
Cowhand Jim Cleve is wrongly accused of murder and rescued by Jack Kells, leader of a band of Idaho outlaws known as the Border Legion. But when the Legion takes Joan Randall prisoner and leaves Cleve to guard her, he realizes that he cannot remain part of an outlaw band and decides to rescue Joan.
When his sister, who is married to saloon keeper Joe Slavin, dies, Jack Armstrong takes in her little daughter, Bebe. Sampson Burke, his rival for schoolteacher Agnes Rushton, conspires with Slavin to have Jack arrested for abduction.
Perry Blair starts off as a sparring partner for a fighter, but when he knocks the guy down, manager Charles Dunham immediately sees his potential. He takes Blair to New York, where he meets pretty Cecil Manners. Blair finds out that his next fight is fixed and he pulls out. When Dunham spreads a rumor that he is yellow, Blair decides to return west.
As the Civil War begins, Ned Burton leaves his Southern love Agatha Warren and joins the Union army. He is later protected and saved from death by Agatha in spite of her loyalty to the South.
Parolee Bart Tullison becomes foreman of Anita Stillwell's ranch near the Nevada border. While Anita considers Bart a coward because he will not pursue cattle rustlers across the border, Jefferson Bradshaw learns of Bart's past and resolves to use it to end the growing affection between Anita and Bart.
This epic Western-melodrama was based on the popular novel by Harold Bell Wright. Two old prospectors, Thad Grove and Bob Hill find an infant in the cabin belonging to Sonora Jack, a notorious bandit. The girl, Marta, grows to womanhood.