A con man posing as a lawyer tries to sell copies of a phony law book. Things get serious when he has to defend a young man falsely accused of robbery.
An aged miner finds a rich gold claim, stakes it out, fills a sack with samples of the gold ore and starts back across the desert to file his claim. His water gives out, and, after days of torture, he at last falls in a clump of sagebrush. In a nearby cabin Jim Durkin and Black, his partner, are about to sit down to supper when faint cries are heard.
Tom Bates is living in the city enjoying a liberal fortune left him by an uncle recently deceased. When Tom received his fortune he was working on a ranch as a cowboy and was a top-notcher, too. In the city he has met May, a charming and beautiful girl, who is engaged to marry him. Tom rescues a forlorn girl in the park from a ruffian. May breaks the engagement.
Mining foreman Jimson is fired by Pedro and Madro when they falsely accuse him of trying to steal ore. When they attack him, he is forced to strike back, and they swear revenge. Their enmity intensifies when Jimson rescues Nina, a Mexican girl, from Pedro's unwanted attentions.
The hero befriends a young school teacher, who adopts a child at his suggestion. The real father of the child, who neglected its mother and allowed her to die, tries to make the teacher believe the hero is its father, which brings about an interesting complication.
Hell Bent Wade is the victim of an attack in which is wife is killed and daughter kidnapped. A couple of decades later, he is a sheriff known only as the "mysterious rider," because of his nighttime prowls in search of cattle rustlers.
Chad Rainey, a young boy from Ohio looses his mother to Cholera. On his way west on a wagon train he elopes into the wilderness where he meets and fall in love with an Indian girl.
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.
Charles Shea, the handsome young foreman of the Bar Z ranch, has won the love of the winsome daughter of his employer, John Graham. Alice and he are engaged to be married when a telegram announcing the death of his father and the request that he immediately return East, is handed Shea. Promising to return immediately the estate is settled. Shea bids Alice good-bye and leaves for the East. A year passes and no word from Charley. The girl is in despair and. though every cowpuncher on the place loves her madly, she refuses each one in turn, declaring that she will wait for Charley, whom she is sure will return soon.
Immediate Lee, employed on the ranch owned by one Masters, is discharged by the manager through the influence of one of his men, who is in the brand blotting game with Masters. Beulah, a dance-hall girl, has attracted the attention of Hurley, a brand blotter, but prefers Lee. Hurley entraps Lee and cuts his mouth open with a wide gash, which leaves a permanent scar. Lee vows vengeance and follows the man all over the country. He at last meets him face to face, but Hurley is saved by the intercession of Beulah. He later is killed in a fierce encounter. The brand blotters are discovered and punished by the aid of Immediate Lee, and Beulah receives the reward of loyalty and devotion by becoming Lee's wife.
Slaughter’s cattle are rustled, and when the sheriff is powerless to do anything about it, Slaughter is elected sheriff himself. With a band of skilled deputies, he brings law and order to Tombstone, and eventually settles his feud with the cattle rustler.
Truthful Tulliver, a Westerner and a journeying newspaperman, followed by Silver Lode Thompson, printer and compositor, arrives in Glory Hole to start a newspaper.