Jack and Dolly, his sister, live together in the west. On Jack's birthday, Dolly presents him with a peculiar ring. The brother and sister attend a masquerade ball that evening, each dressed in the other's clothes. Dolly, being taken for a man, meets Big Bill, a new ranchman, and he offers her a cigar, which she tries to smoke. Jack sees her in distress, and coming to her rescue, is introduced as the sister. The next morning Jack leaves to look over his stock. While riding through the sage brush, he takes a shot at a rabbit and the bullet lands near the spot where a cattle rustler is plying his unlawful trade. The cattle rustler and Jack meet. The former believes that Jack tried to kill him and a fight follows. Jack is killed.
A family is attacked by Indians, the father killed and son captured. The widow remarries and her stepdaughter, Mabel, encourages her stepbrother to find his lost half-brother. Dick, influenced by a gambler, gambles away his money and tries to exploit Mabel, prompting her to join the search with a gambler she meets, Jack. They discover the brother is now an Indian chief, leading to further complications.
When Tommy, an Eastern young man, arrives in a Western town, the cowboys see that he is a tenderfoot and make him dance to the tune of a gun. Beecher, a ranchman, Hazel, his daughter, and Sid, the foreman, who is in love with Hazel, rescue Tommy.
Private Frank Austin, imprisoned for striking Colonel Kincaid, who was abusing a lame newsboy, escapes to Colorado. Meanwhile, Latin professor Thomas Doyle, his wife Mary and sister Kitty also move to Colorado because of Mrs. Doyle's health and are persuaded by Kincaid to buy a ranch that is worthless because it has no irrigation. While Mrs. Doyle gets well and Doyle's funds run out, Austin, on land bordering Doyle's, strikes gold and is blackmailed by Kincaid to let him have a controlling interest.
Having struck it rich, two prospectors return to town, where one of them is to be married while the other will serve as best man. But on the eve of the wedding, the best man turns out to be the worst of the two, and elopes with the bride-to-be. Though heartbroken, the jilted bridegroom shrugs philosophically and returns to gold-mining. Several years later, the wife dies, and her husband becomes a high-rolling gambler.
Broncho Billy is in love with the rancher's daughter. Her father disapproves of their affair and one day quarrels with Broncho. A few days later the rancher drops dead while at work. Broncho Billy's rival discovers the body and seeing an opportunity to implicate Broncho, shoots the rancher's body. Broncho Billy is accused of the murder
Rose Blake, daughter of the ranch foreman, is in love with Tom, the cook, and her father disapproves of the match. Blake finally discharges Tom, and the boys become disgusted when they try to prepare their own meals. Disguised as a young lady, Tom arrives at the ranch, where he is engaged by Blake as a cook.
The story is set in Alaska, where spoiled and pampered heiress Octavia Van Ness has come for her health. Here she meets 'Chuck' Hemingway, who despite his rough exterior is likewise a child of wealth, and a Yale graduate to boot. When Van Ness violently rejects his romantic overtures, Hemingway turns to an old Indian chum for advice. The Indian suggests rather chauvinistically that the way to win a headstrong girl is to "tame" her -- that is, treat 'er rough and make 'er like it.
Trapper John Gale lives in the Canadian backwoods with his daughter, Alice. Gale catches Ralph Martin stealing from his traps and a confrontation ensues. During the fight, they recognize each other as former clerks from the East, where Gale had been wrongly accused of murder. Spurned by Alice, Ralph notifies the Mounties of John’s whereabouts even though he is the guilty party.
Vicky pays a visit to her uncle's ranch in the west, and tells the cowboys that she could not love a man who is not an athlete. Tom and Sid, two of the cowboys, thereupon practice physical culture.
Gerald, the somewhat frail son of a wealthy New York family, is bested at the beach by Bill, a strapping young cowboy from Arizona. His fiancée Mary, ashamed of Gerald's "yellow streak", leaves him and goes by train to visit some friends in Arizona, with Bill in tow. Gerald follows them, and before long he and Mary winds up captured by Yaqui Indians and Gerald must prove to Mary that he is not the "weakling" she thinks he is by coming up with a plan for them to escape their captors.
The son of the sheriff of Arizona Territory is an outlaw. When he's captured and sentenced to hang his mother and two sisters plead with the Governor for mercy.
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.