After the death of his mother, young Ben Blair finds a safe home on John Rankin’s ranch. But when Rankin is murdered, the older Ben sets out to seek vengeance.
When Reverend Robert Henley and his sister Faith arrive in the town of Hell's Hinges, saloon owner Silk Miller and his cohorts sense danger to their evil ways. They hire gunman Blaze Tracy to run the minister out of town. But Blaze finds something in Faith Henley that turns him around, and soon Silk Miller and his compadres have Blaze to deal with.
Old man Wilson is much inclined to a liberal use of liquor. His daughter. Nell, is known and liked by all the cowboys of the surrounding ranches. Jack Harding is especially fond of Nell. Old man Wilson fears Jack. The manager of the ranch on which Jack works is negotiating with a livestock exchange relative to the sale of a bunch of horses, and accordingly, the buyer of the exchange, Neal Banning, arrives on the ground, accompanied by his daughter, to look over the stock. Jack finds the city-bred girl very fascinating, while she finds much to admire in the young cowboy. The two take many rides together, in which Jack explains the country and the business of the livestock people to the girl. Nell notices the growing intimacy between the two, and is very down-hearted over it.
Unaware of the weakness of Bob Graham's character, Bess Dawson decides to marry him instead of the other cowboy who loves her, Cheyenne Harry. Before the wedding, however, some crooks induce Bob to take part in a hold-up. Then when Harry hears that a posse has been dispatched to catch Bob, he rides out to him and helps him escape.
When a cowpoke steps into a fight and saves the life of a disreputable gambler, the gambler decides to reciprocate by revealing to his new-found friend the truth about the cowpoke's fiancée.
The capitalist one evening suddenly realizes that his wife is slowly drifting away from him. A certain young Rodney Hildebrand has been paying her great attention and her affairs are the common gossip at the club. He determines to at least save his wife's name from dishonor.
The Jordans, Phil and Ruth, accompanied by Philip's wife, Polly, and Dr. Winthrop Newbury, a suitor for Ruth's hand, bid old Mrs. Jordan good-bye at the station of Milford Corners, Mass., and depart for the West, to work over some unredeemed desert land, which was left to the Jordans by their dead father. Arriving in the west, they take up their work, but it proves anything but a success. On the brink of the Great Divide lives Stephen Ghent, an untamed and uncouth man of the West, and on account of his manner is respected by the habitués of Miller's saloon and dance hall in the town, which he and two of his acquaintances in the persons of Pedro, a half-breed Mexican, and Dutch, a brutal type of the West, frequent.
Broncho Billy becomes enraged when a stranger comes to town and wins the affections of his sweetheart. On the night of the wedding Broncho Billy "shoots up" the church, wounding the bridegroom. He then escapes across the border, after leaving a note to his rival telling him he will finish the job on Christmas night.
Tom Merry, a stagecoach driver, is in love with Vicky, daughter of Henderson, superintendent of the Eagle Mining Company. Henderson does not approve of his daughter's choice. Jordan, who works in the office, proposes to Vicky, is refused and when Jordan becomes insulting, Henderson discharges him. Jordan incites the men to a riot at the mining company's office and plans with two others, to hold up the stage which Tom drives, on his return trip and get the payroll.
Wall street broker Barry Dale is systematically ruined financially by his alleged best friend Richard Marvin . This Marvin does so that he can win Dale's wife Virginia away from the discredited broker. Dispirited and disillusioned, Dale heads to the West for a fresh start in life. Unfortunately, he soon develops the reputation as a coward, but he manages to dispel this by becoming a notorious outlaw, reasoning that highway robbery is not all that different from Wall Street chicanery.
Broncho Billy becomes engaged. A month later the engagement is broken when the girl's father comes into a fortune. She moves to the city with her parents, where she lives surrounded by luxury.
Martin, a ranch owner, writes Graves, a broker, to send Tom Graves west to marry Martin's daughter, Daisy. Tom has a sweetheart, but obeys his father's orders. Meanwhile, Daisy has a sweetheart unknown to her father, and when Martin tells Daisy that Tom Graves is coming to marry her Daisy tells her sweetheart, Ned, all about it. Ned meets Tom; they become friends and Tom visits Ned's claim. Tom shows Ned Daisy's picture and they agree to a plan. Ned agrees to impersonate Tom and marry Daisy while Tom is to send for Hazel.
Chimmie is sent to Death Valley CA as part of a railroad scheme. He's to pretend to have discovered gold there, then set a new transcontinental record heading east. It doesn't quite work out that way.