Old Silas Jordan, a settler, finds that his horse is not able to pull the heavy load demanded, and discovers the well-fed broncho of Jim Davis, a ranchman, staked out near the trail. Jordan deliberately takes the broncho, hitches it to his wagon and drives on.
The basis of the story is an old edict, issued as the result of one of the tribal differences, that death shall be meted out to the Hopi woman who marries an Apache.
"Alkali" Ike, with a luxuriant growth of beard that he has carefully fostered, determines to see the city for the first time. He arrives, and not being a good dodger, is knocked insensible by the first automobile he encounters. His disfigured face is shaven by a doctor, who adorns it with several large strips of plaster, gives him some new clothes and turns him loose. Arriving back in his home town he meets his wife's sister, attempts to embrace her and she, not recognizing his shaven face, summons the aid of a group of punchers who immediately put Alkali through a course of rough treatment, including a ducking in the watering trough, and finally land him in the town jail.
A romantic drama that unfolds in part in British India. Sona, who leaves home with her child because of the quarrel between her two suitors, is threatened along the way by wild animals. The quarrelling suitors put their dispute behind them, and rescue her.
Broncho is instrumental in saving Yellow Wolf, an Indian, from the wrath of Dan Runnion, a surly cowpuncher, and Runnion swears revenge. His chance comes when he sees a notice from the county sheriff advising that cattle rustlers are at work and for ranchmen to watch their stock.
Professor De Risque, anxious to escape for a time the too solicitous attention of Madame De Risque, arrives at Roaring Gulch and, noting that the town numbers some very pretty girls amongst its population, he hangs out his shingle announcing the fact that he teaches the piano and violin. The professor is charming and the young ladies are impressionable, they readily desert the constant cowboys for the professor. The cowboys get their heads together and plan a counter-move.
A Secret Service agent is looking for a bandit who has just held up the stage coach. A rancher's daughter, hears a description of the outlaw and mistakes the secret Service agent for the crook.
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.