Jim Marlow's brother, Chet, who has come west to manage the family mining properties, cheats Pete Daley out of his property. Pete enters Chet's office at night and robs the safe, being seen in the act by Tom Crowley. Pete hides the strongbox and sends a letter to his daughter, Marion, stating its location. Jim gets the letter and finds the strongbox, running afoul of Crowley, who shoots him. The sheriff arrests Jim for stealing the box, and Crowley attempts to take the box from the sheriff at gunpoint. The sheriff shoots Crowley, and Crowley, mortally wounded, tells the sheriff that Pete Daley was the man responsible for the original theft of the box. A lawyer who has been investigating Chet discovers that he has cheated Jim out of the substantial part of his rightful inheritance; Chet is sent to jail, and Jim settles down with Marion Daley.
A mining camp girl attempts to reform a young derelict addicted to drink. Colleen Moore broke her neck in a fall from a moving handcar during the making of this rousing sagebrush melodrama. The pert Moore, an idol of her generation, quickly regained her mobility but was reportedly forced to sleep in a leather neck support for nearly ten years.
In Red Gulch Tom is married to Nell and has a daughter. He is shot by cardsharp Jim, who runs off with Nell. The little daughter, found wandering on the prairie by two wolf hunters, is adopted and named Prairie Nell. Fifteen years later, she is the pride of Bar X, when Tom returns, shoots Jim, and finds his daughter.
In order to arouse the jealousy of Philip Steele, a wealthy young man who is infatuated with her, Isobel Becker introduces her father to him as her husband. Steele is bitterly disappointed and before Isobel can explain her little joke, he leaves and joins the Northwest Mounted Police, in which he soon distinguishes himself. He is assigned to bring in Bucky Nome, a notorious gambler and lecher who is wanted for murder. Colonel Becker, Isobel's wealthy father, is interested in the fur business and goes to Canada, taking her with him. Bucky wrecks the pleasure train on which they are riding and kidnaps Isobel. Steele eventually catches up with Bucky, bringing him to justice and rescuing Isobel. The subdued girl explains her joke, and Steele resigns from the force, again taking his place in polite society.
Don Cesar De Vega crosses swords with a vicious member of the Queen's Guard, and steals the affection of a young heiress. When the officer frames the young upstart for murder, Don Cesar fakes his own death and retreats to the crumbling ruins of the family castle he plots his vengeance.
When Bill Croft, a notorious gunfighter, is bushwhacked, innocent rancher Frank Douglas is accused of the crime on circumstantial evidence and sentenced to be hanged. Jack Douglas, Frank's son, sets out to prove his father's innocence with the help of Jean, the murdered man's daughter; Jack eventually apprehends the killer and forces him to confess, but the sheriff is unable to stop the execution without an official pardon.
Two men claiming to be scientists arrive in Arizona looking for Blair, a fellow scientist who disappeared while developing a death ray. The men hire Jim Wilson, who finds Blair living with his daughter on a ranch in an inaccessible valley near the Grand Canyon, where the scientist is testing his ray on birds and wild animals.
Oscar has been sent to the plains to make a man of himself, is soon visited by his sister Sybil Estabrook, who travels west along with her maid in tow. Oscar, who has been losing at cards to Victor Dufresne, is forced by him to rob a stagecoach in order to pay off his gambling debts.
Dave Sethman has been brought up to believe that he is the half-breed son of Sethman, a tough rancher who opposes the plans of John Crawford, an eastern industrialist, to buy up a group of ranches. Crawford comes west with his daughter, Jean, and attempts to break the elder Sethman's opposition. Dave saves Jean from a runaway horse and later protects her when Murdock, Crawford's unprincipled assistant, makes unwanted advances. Sethman plans to rustle Crawford's cattle and is mortally wounded by him, telling Dave, as he lies dying, that Crawford is Dave's real father from whom he was stolen as an infant. Dave and Crawford are reconciled, and Crawford, whom Dave has shot in the hand, tells the boy that Jean is his adopted daughter, leaving the way free for a romance between the young people.
Caught by the Piutes, pony Express Rider Dick Carter falls in love with pretty Dorothy Earle, who belongs to that seemingly endless supply of white girls kidnapped in childhood and raised by Indians. Unfortunately, Dorothy is promised to Bud Osborne, described in a title as "a renegade white who dominates the simple minds of the savage horde." Does Dorothy succeed in taking her own life rather than face an uncertain future with evil Bud? Or does the stalwart Dick rescue her in time?
When Bob Smith brings in the outlaw Bob Moore he learns his real name is also Bob Smith. With his sister whom he has not seen since childhood arriving, Moore gets Smith to pose as him. The masquerade works fine for a while but then Moore's gang members plan to kill him and Smith must save the brother of the woman he now loves.
The foreman of a ranch owned by a pretty young girl captures a herd of wild horses, but the herd's lead horse manages to break them free. The foreman blames a drifting cowboy, Yak, for the break-out. Yak, however, seems intent on provoking a confrontation with the foreman at every opportunity--and, as it turns out, for good reason.
John Shefford is looking for his uncle Venters who years ago found a hidden valley and lived there with Jane Withersteen and young Fay Larkin. He finds Kay, now grown, who tells John that Willets and his men got into the nearly inaccessible valley and she has agreed to marry him to save the lives of the other two. John and Fay head for the valley with Willets and with his men right behind.
As a result of a blow on his head, suffered when he was robbed of a shipment of platinum by a gang of bandits known as the Wolf Pack, Sheriff Larry O'Donnell loses his memory and disappears for several months. Jeff Baines, leader of the outlaw gang, uses Larry's absence to get himself elected sheriff. Larry regains his memory, secures proof of Baines' guilt as the leader of the Wolf Pack, seals the evidence into an envelope, and gives it to Madge Blake, the postmistress, to mail to the governor. Baines and his henchmen attempt to rob the mail coach to stop the latter but are captured in a trap set by Larry.