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.
When the stagecoach is about to pull out on its daily trip, Jack, the driver, finally locates Tom, the coach guard, in a saloon where a fight is in progress and Jack helps Tom whip several of the cowboys. One of the cowboys vows revenge and plots to hold up the stagecoach.
Tom Martin and Leo Binnis arrive in a small mining town. Andy Johnson, his wife and daughter, Vicky, are also seeking a western home. Jim Brown, a cattleman, poisons the water holes to kill off the wild horses that are eating the range bare, and Johnson and his wife drink from the water hole and die.
Jessie Baird, the postmaster's daughter, handles the registered mail. Hankey, a gambler, seeing the men sending money away from the mining town, decides to rob the stagecoach of the mail bag. He orders Pete, a pal, to board the stage and throw the mail bag off at Deer Creek.
Broncho Billy, the sheepman, goes to the village store and purchases an engagement ring for his sweetheart, the school teacher. As he is about to mount his horse, he finds a note pinned to the saddle, telling him to leave the country that only cow men are desired. On his way home he is fired upon by the cattle king and his gang. Broncho Billy returns the fire wounding the leader, but also is wounded himself. He goes to the school house, where he is protected by his sweetheart until help arrives. In the meantime the wounded cattle king has been picked up unconscious by Broncho Billy's parents.
Arizona range rider Lon Gilchrist helps stagecoach passengers fight off attacking Apaches. After rescuing a baby and binding her bleeding forehead with his handkerchief, Lon receives a reward that allows him to buy a ranch. Many years later, the rescued child, Lizzie Mayberry, is a waitress in a cheap restaurant, where she meets Lon, who, now wealthy, courts and marries her. Because he is so busy, Lon has his friend Del Beasley look after her. After a misunderstanding, Lizzie has Del take her to the railway station. Thinking that they left together, Lon pursues them.
In a fight Marguerite's father kills a man and Broncho Billy, the sheriff, goes in search of the slayer. Marguerite successfully hides her father. Broncho Billy, however, waits on the outside. Marguerite, in order to get the sheriff away from the door and allow her father to make his escape, leads Broncho Billy to believe that she has hidden her father in a woodshed. Broncho Billy with drawn revolver rushes into the outer building and Marguerite hastily throws on the lock, making him a prisoner.
A notorious gambler and card cheat, George Forrester, rules a little western town with an iron hand. The men of the town plot to catch him cheating and do, but his men save him from danger. In the same town lives Gerald Austen, or Aitkens, who had left his tyrannical father in the east and made good in the west.
John Found, a well-educated American Indian, works as an interpreter on an army post in the West. Although John Lane, a post officer, loves Katie O'Day, a rancher's daughter, he becomes the amorous target of the widowed Mrs. Van Allen. To rid herself of Katie, Mrs. Van Allen starts a rumor that Lane has a wife in an insane asylum.
Tom is given the position of Cowboy on Sid Jordan's ranch. Vicky, Sid's daughter, is annoyed by Buck, the ranch foreman, who is discharged and Tom is given the position.
Owner of a fashionable gambling den John De Forrest seeks out wealthy people and lures them to his gambling den with the help of Lil, a beautiful but heartless blonde once there they trick the moneyed suckers into losing their fortunes. When the joint is raided and a policeman accidently killed the pair take it on the lam and head towards very different destinies.