Notorious shootist and womanizer Quirt Evans' horse collapses as he passes a Quaker family's home. Quirt has been wounded, and the kindly family takes him in to nurse him back to health against the advice of others. The handsome Evans quickly attracts the affections of their beautiful daughter, Penelope. He develops an affection for the family and their faith, but his troubled past follows him.
Horse breeders Adams and Brock are vying for the Army contract. When Adams is killed trying to ride his horse Trigger, Roy saves the horse from being shot. He trains him and then plans to ride him in the race to win the contract.
Chaco, a Mexican on the run from just about everyone, is framed for the killing of a couple of Mexican cattlemen. Everyone knows he's innocent but the evidence is substantial. Chaco escapes and with the help of a bounty hunter, goes after the real murderers.
In the midst of the Civil War, Lassiter has a plan to get control of California. Working out of St. Joseph, he plans to send forged messages to the troops on the west coast via Pony Express. First he attempts to bribe Pony Express ride Roy Rogers. When Roy refuses he turns to the outlaw Johnson and his gang and this leads to trouble.
During the Austrian-Prussian war, Anna Marie is a dancer who is forced to flee her country after she is accused of being a spy. She ends up in a lawless western town in Arizona, where she uses her charms and dancing skills to transform herself into "Salome" during her dance routines.
Custer has been demoted from general and is assigned to shape up a squad of soldiers, but it's not long before he disobeys orders and goes into action; at one point, he joins forces with Crazy Horse where he gets the chance to offer the "white man" 's justifications.
After a mountain homestead is attacked by a raiding party made up of ravenous marauders, the lone survivor, a beautiful young woman, hires a dangerous gunman to help her track them down and exact revenge.
Not quite as memorable as his previous Riders in the Sky, Gene Autry's Sons of New Mexico is still well up to the star's standard. This time, Gene tries to reform Randy Pryor, a would-be juvenile delinquent, played by Autry-protégé Dick Jones (who later starred in the Autry-produced TV series Range Rider and Buffalo Bill Jr). To this end, Pryor is enrolled at the New Mexico Military Institute, where much of this film was lensed. The kid chafes at the school's regimen and escapes, heading back to his criminal mentor Pat Feeney (Robert Armstrong).
Dyer is buying ranches and then retrieving his check by having his gang kill the owner. Bob Worth arrives just as Buck Morton is killed and gets blamed for the murder. Fleeing from the Sheriff, Bob teams up with the Mexican outlaw Golinda. Having seen Dyer pay off his men, he has a plan to trap him and Golinda is just the man he needs to make it work.
Gene returns from the East with new ranch owner Tom Bennett to find everyone's cattle dying. Blaine has reopened the copper mine and the waste is poisoning the water supply. While Gene is away Tom confronts the miners and a man is killed in the ensuing gunfight. Now Gene not only has the dying cattle problem but his ranch owner is in jail.
Gene Autry is back near the saddle, trying to help out a crippled jockey. Gene is certain that the jockey can ride in the Big Race if the lad can regain his self-confidence. Meanwhile, Gene and comical sidekick Sterling Holloway have another problem on their hands: A rogue stallion has "kidnapped" Gene's prize mare. Piloting a plane, Autry seeks out and locates the stallion.
The fifth film in the 24-film Range Busters series finds "Crash", "Dusty" and Alibi, on their way to Gopher City to become the town's peace officers. In the saloon, young Jimmy Rowell is losing money in a crooked poker game to saloon owner Bob Harmon. Harmon and his henchman Bart Gill are in reality wanted-outlaw brothers Jim and Ike Breedon seeking revenge against Jimmy and his school-teaching sister Sally as their father, a circuit judge in Nebraska, had sentenced their brother Bud to be hanged. Harmon involves Jimmy, because of his gambling debts, in a robbery of a rancher known to keep large amounts of money at his ranch. The Range Busters break up the robbery, Bart is killed, as is Rancher Fleming, and Jimmy is wounded but escapes. Harmon, setting a trap for Crash, tricks Sally and Jimmy to his hideout, and Crash follows them.
Lawyer Creech is after the ranch of the dying Cartwright. First he brings in Cahill to pose as the only living relative. Then when the Tonto Kid finds platinum on the ranch, Creech frames him for murder.
During the last months of the Civil War, Joe's brother is killed unjustly by Clifford, a captain in the Northen army. Joe decides to join a group of Southerners determined to resist till the end. Joe is considered an outlaw and a reward is posted for his capture. When the war ends, Joe returns to the farm where he used to work only to find Christine, the owner's daughter and his sweetheart, engaged to the hated Captain Clifford.