Tom Merry, a stagecoach driver, is in love with Vicky, daughter of Henderson, superintendent of the Eagle Mining Company. Henderson does not approve of his daughter's choice. Jordan, who works in the office, proposes to Vicky, is refused and when Jordan becomes insulting, Henderson discharges him. Jordan incites the men to a riot at the mining company's office and plans with two others, to hold up the stage which Tom drives, on his return trip and get the payroll.
Wall street broker Barry Dale is systematically ruined financially by his alleged best friend Richard Marvin . This Marvin does so that he can win Dale's wife Virginia away from the discredited broker. Dispirited and disillusioned, Dale heads to the West for a fresh start in life. Unfortunately, he soon develops the reputation as a coward, but he manages to dispel this by becoming a notorious outlaw, reasoning that highway robbery is not all that different from Wall Street chicanery.
Broncho Billy becomes engaged. A month later the engagement is broken when the girl's father comes into a fortune. She moves to the city with her parents, where she lives surrounded by luxury.
Martin, a ranch owner, writes Graves, a broker, to send Tom Graves west to marry Martin's daughter, Daisy. Tom has a sweetheart, but obeys his father's orders. Meanwhile, Daisy has a sweetheart unknown to her father, and when Martin tells Daisy that Tom Graves is coming to marry her Daisy tells her sweetheart, Ned, all about it. Ned meets Tom; they become friends and Tom visits Ned's claim. Tom shows Ned Daisy's picture and they agree to a plan. Ned agrees to impersonate Tom and marry Daisy while Tom is to send for Hazel.
Chimmie is sent to Death Valley CA as part of a railroad scheme. He's to pretend to have discovered gold there, then set a new transcontinental record heading east. It doesn't quite work out that way.
Jack and Dolly, his sister, live together in the west. On Jack's birthday, Dolly presents him with a peculiar ring. The brother and sister attend a masquerade ball that evening, each dressed in the other's clothes. Dolly, being taken for a man, meets Big Bill, a new ranchman, and he offers her a cigar, which she tries to smoke. Jack sees her in distress, and coming to her rescue, is introduced as the sister. The next morning Jack leaves to look over his stock. While riding through the sage brush, he takes a shot at a rabbit and the bullet lands near the spot where a cattle rustler is plying his unlawful trade. The cattle rustler and Jack meet. The former believes that Jack tried to kill him and a fight follows. Jack is killed.
When Tommy, an Eastern young man, arrives in a Western town, the cowboys see that he is a tenderfoot and make him dance to the tune of a gun. Beecher, a ranchman, Hazel, his daughter, and Sid, the foreman, who is in love with Hazel, rescue Tommy.
Private Frank Austin, imprisoned for striking Colonel Kincaid, who was abusing a lame newsboy, escapes to Colorado. Meanwhile, Latin professor Thomas Doyle, his wife Mary and sister Kitty also move to Colorado because of Mrs. Doyle's health and are persuaded by Kincaid to buy a ranch that is worthless because it has no irrigation. While Mrs. Doyle gets well and Doyle's funds run out, Austin, on land bordering Doyle's, strikes gold and is blackmailed by Kincaid to let him have a controlling interest.
Having struck it rich, two prospectors return to town, where one of them is to be married while the other will serve as best man. But on the eve of the wedding, the best man turns out to be the worst of the two, and elopes with the bride-to-be. Though heartbroken, the jilted bridegroom shrugs philosophically and returns to gold-mining. Several years later, the wife dies, and her husband becomes a high-rolling gambler.
Broncho Billy is in love with the rancher's daughter. Her father disapproves of their affair and one day quarrels with Broncho. A few days later the rancher drops dead while at work. Broncho Billy's rival discovers the body and seeing an opportunity to implicate Broncho, shoots the rancher's body. Broncho Billy is accused of the murder
Rose Blake, daughter of the ranch foreman, is in love with Tom, the cook, and her father disapproves of the match. Blake finally discharges Tom, and the boys become disgusted when they try to prepare their own meals. Disguised as a young lady, Tom arrives at the ranch, where he is engaged by Blake as a cook.
The story is set in Alaska, where spoiled and pampered heiress Octavia Van Ness has come for her health. Here she meets 'Chuck' Hemingway, who despite his rough exterior is likewise a child of wealth, and a Yale graduate to boot. When Van Ness violently rejects his romantic overtures, Hemingway turns to an old Indian chum for advice. The Indian suggests rather chauvinistically that the way to win a headstrong girl is to "tame" her -- that is, treat 'er rough and make 'er like it.
Vicky pays a visit to her uncle's ranch in the west, and tells the cowboys that she could not love a man who is not an athlete. Tom and Sid, two of the cowboys, thereupon practice physical culture.
Gerald, the somewhat frail son of a wealthy New York family, is bested at the beach by Bill, a strapping young cowboy from Arizona. His fiancée Mary, ashamed of Gerald's "yellow streak", leaves him and goes by train to visit some friends in Arizona, with Bill in tow. Gerald follows them, and before long he and Mary winds up captured by Yaqui Indians and Gerald must prove to Mary that he is not the "weakling" she thinks he is by coming up with a plan for them to escape their captors.
Harley Hennage, a gambler, loves Marie but remains silent when he realizes that she is in love with Oliver Corblay, a prospector. After Corblay and Marie marry, Harley moves to the distant town of San Pasqual and does not see his old sweetheart until her husband is killed while staking a claim in the desert.
Broncho Billy and his brother are both in love with the same girl, but she decides to marry Broncho's brother. One Sunday morning an outlaw creates a panic in the church by "shooting up" the place. The sheriff, who is the girl's father, is shot when he attempts to arrest the outlaw. Broncho's brother is offered the sheriff's star, but is afraid to take it.