Broncho Billy, a young clergyman, is struck on the head and left for dead by his partner, just after they have struck it rich on a mining claim. He is found by a young Indian girl and taken to the Indian camp where he is nursed back to health. During his convalescence he teaches the girl the commandment, "Thou Shalt Not Kill," and the motto, "Forgive and Forget."
In Snake River, Buck Farley breaks up a fight staged by crooked Chicago Saloon owner Johnson, who set-up alcoholic Jake Frazer as the town's sheriff as a joke. Johnson pretends to have saved Buck's life (when in reality he was planning on shooting him), which indentures Buck to Johnson, and Buck becoming his deputy. Buck also starts to have feelings for Jake's daughter, Emma, who has also rebuffed the advances of Johnson. Johnson uses a ruse to get Buck searching for some allegedly stolen horses in the desert, but Buck forces Johnson to accompany him (after he realizes that Johnson is not on the up and up, and also has designs on Emma)...
The story concerns cowboy Tom Warner, who raises sheep on a cattle ranch owned by a man named Dixon, the father of his girlfriend Jean. Jean, meanwhile, is being menaced by a Mexican outlaw who wants to have his way with her. When Jean's father decides he no longer wants Tom to raise sheep on his ranch they quarrel, and Dixon later sends a gang of thuggish ranch hands to persuade Tom to see things his way.
Out of the talk at the Sportsmen's Club arises a wager between the globe-trotter and his friend, who bets that he will not be able, within a fixed time, to find his way out of an isolated mountain location to which he will lead him.
Hiram Flint is about to foreclose a mortgage on widow Wilson's ranch. Maude, the widow's daughter, pleads with Flint for further time. He says he might consider it and tries to make love to the girl, who spurns him. This enrages the lawyer, who says that if the mortgage is not paid by four o'clock that day, he will take the place.
Rancher Algy discovers oil on his property and outsmarts a land shark named Todd who tries to buy the land back at a lower price after learning of the discovery. Todd's secretary informs Sally, who warns Algy, but he reveals he already knew about the oil and had planned the whole scenario. This not only wins him the land but also Sally's affections, as Todd loses both.
A stagecoach robber falls in love with a saloon girl. However, she falls for a pastor, who converts her and she marries him. The robber is so impressed by this that he decides to turn over a new leaf. However, a shady gambler sets his sights on the former saloon girl, and the robber has to protect her from his advances.
Mrs. Murphy runs a boarding house in a small western town and has trouble in keeping a cook, for the cowboy boarders insist upon eloping with them. After losing two cooks, Mrs. Murphy induces a couple of the cowboys to try their skill, but this does not prove successful. An employment agency is importuned to send Mrs. Murphy a girl cook.
Andy of the Royal Mounted and another trooper are both in love with a little school teacher, who shows the light of knowledge to the children of the settlers in a tiny Canadian hamlet. The school teacher favors Andy's suit and the other trooper is correspondingly despondent. He loses gracefully because Andy is his best friend, but his trouble preys on him. He goes into a saloon, gets drunk and is caught by his colonel and discharged from the service. Later, he shoots a gambler in a brawl and while making his getaway, rescues the school teacher from death when her horse runs away.
Avis and Franklin Hilliard are the spoiled, overbearing children of a wealthy father who has just died. Lord Cecil Oakleigh, a fortune hunter, is Avis's fiancée, although there is no love between them, he marrying her for her fortune and she marrying him for his title. Mr. Hilliard has left the superintendent of his mine in full charge of his fortune.
Old Si Spunk is dying, and leaves his shack and acres in Montana to Elizabeth Spunk, his niece, in the East. A cowboy finds a photograph of a fierce looking old maid with the name "Elizabeth Spunk" on the back. Thinking this is the niece, Tom and Jerry, two of the cowboys, hit upon an idea to drive her out of the country.
The bandit leader is lying wounded in his cabin on the mountain when his confederates bring in a girl whom they have kidnapped while she was on her way to join her father after a trip east.
Dismissed from the church because of his seemingly undue intimacy with the schoolteacher, the young minister becomes an evangelist and, after an incident in which he thrashes the drunken sheriff, is appointed sheriff by the mayor. In the girl's home he sees a picture of her father, whom he recognizes as identical with that on a circular calling for the arrest of Idaho Mac, a notorious desperado. He promises the girl that he will never use his gun against her father, but sends his deputy, the ex-sheriff, to apprehend Idaho Mac at the border. The bandit, badly wounded by the deputy's bullets, reaches his daughter's house, and she thinks the sheriff false to his word.
Carrie Simpkins, a lady lawyer, arrives in a small western town and begins the practice of law. Pete, Jake and Jerry, three cowboys, fall in love with her, but do not progress. Smithers, the pioneer town lawyer happens by and sees the sign, "Carrie Simpkins, Lawyer," and decides to pay her a visit, which he does, and he also falls in love with her. Pete, Jake and Jerry all hit upon the same plan unknown to each other, which will help their chances with Carrie.
Ma and Dad, with their two daughters, live in a cottage in a small western town. The sheriff is a friend of the family and a frequent visitor. Tom, the gambler, has tried to force his attention on Madge and Rose. The gambler plays cards in a bar-room with an assayer, and breaks him. Thereupon the assayer decides to end his life, but the gambler advances him some money.