Nine-year-old Nedda is a direct descendant of the Trevors, a family that can trace its roots back to the reign of King Charles I. Alas, the Trevors suffer severe financial reverses, and Nedda is yanked from the luxury of her ancestral home in Britain to be raised on New York's Lower East Side. Ten years later, the grown-up Nedda stands accused of the murder of her mother.
Juan leaves for Rawlins, Arizona, where he wants to find a job so he can marry his fiancee Juanita, because Juanita's mother says a man must have quite substantial savings before he can marry her daughter. Juan takes a job with the railways. When a former employee raids the money train on which Juan is working, he manages to escape with the aid of a trolley, as a result of which the attack can be thwarted. For his courageous act Juan gets two thousand guilders as a reward.
In order to get a job as a cook on a ranch, a young girl disguises herself as a boy. Problems arise when several of the young women at the ranch fall in love with "him".
A ranchman is best by a bully whose unwelcome attentions are resented by the ranchman's daughter. Everything seems to be in favor of the bully until the hero makes his appearance, when the tide changes and one defeat after another is the lot of the vicious bully until he is driven away in disgrace.
A pioneer caravan is attacked by Indians, who greatly outnumber the pale faces. The whole party are massacred, with the exception of a year-and-one-half old baby, who being hidden by its mother, escapes detection. Whitey is a big, bashful cowpuncher, who secretly worships at the shrine of the only eligible woman in camp, a buxom widow.
A regiment of cavalry surprises the Sioux and puts them to flight. Colonel Graham and others personally attend to the wants of the wounded, and the Colonel finds a wounded squaw in one of the tepees, with a little girl crouched in terror by her side.
Pepita, proprietress of the town dance hall, is loved by Big Moose, an Indian. Jake Harding, a worthless cowpuncher, also pretends love for Pepita in order to get an occasional drink of free whiskey. Big Moose swears to kill Harding, and is only prevented from carrying out his treat by Pepita.
Violet De Ray opens up a barber shop at Roaring Gulch. Violet not only does a ripping good business, but she unconsciously has a hand in hurrying along several matrimonial affairs which have hung fire. This is notably the case with Si, who has loved bashfully and at a respectable distance for years. He is lured into Violet's shop, and after his chin whiskers have been clipped he emerges elated; and this coupled with Mandy's desire to protect him from such evil influences, cements a long drawn out romance.
Red Reagan, and two companions, Brooks and Mathis, lose their way while on a prospecting trip in the mountains. Fortunately they come to an Indian camp where they get food and water, and So-Jun-Wah a beauteous Indian maid, shows them the trail to the settlement.
The period is 1876; trains of settlers are moving westward. It is the time of pioneers and prairie schooners. Dan is leading one wagon train and his party fall in with another led by a stalwart Indian, Mahomena. They proceed together. Amongst the latter party is a young girl, Eunice, and she and Dan are immediately attracted to each other
Jane Carston was to return tomorrow from Ohio, where she had been for the past three years in school, and the ranch was all agog with expectancy and cleanliness. Bob Evans, head cowboy, was most eager and most anxious of the lot. Tomorrow finally became today and Pa had gone to the station in his best linen duster and the buckboard to meet Jane. Finally, in a cloud of dust. Bob discerns them on the brow of the hill. Arriving at the house Jane greets mother with a rousing smack.
Wanted outlaw Red Saunders shelters a young girl and her mother in his mountain hideaway after a house fire. The mother falls gravely ill and Red must sacrifice his freedom to go into town to find a doctor.
The sheriff lives with his sister, and is engaged in running down an unknown bandit who has been quite active in the district. It develops that Jim Brown, a poor miner, who has lost his wife and is in straitened circumstances, has become embittered at the world and is the bandit, living alone with his little boy, Tom.
When the Great Chief's body is placed before the funeral pile by his mourning braves, his sacred blanket is covered over it and a sentinel left to watch that this, his last resting place, is not desecrated. The tribe has just departed for their village when a mountain outlaw appears and succeeds in stealing the blanket, having given the sentinel doctored whiskey. When the Indians discover this they exile the unfaithful sentinel until he can recover the blanket.
Bob Madden returns home slightly intoxicated and his father angrily commands him to leave the place and shift for himself. The next morning he goes, leaving his father a note: "Dear Dad, I am going out West and try to make a man of myself. I hope some day you will be proud of me. Your son. Bob."
The Thomas family are the owners of a large horse ranch, on the borders of New Mexico. A neighboring band of Apaches, under the famous Geronimo, had for several years been at peace, consequently the Thomas ranch was in a flourishing condition. Tom, the foreman, and Jerry, one of his trusted lieutenants, are rivals for the hand of Jess, the ranch owner's daughter.
When gold is discovered the first man there gets to stake his claim. Joe and another man race each other, which involves a thrilling episode on a train.