The movie takes place in the present, but in this universe, a plague has broken out and the infected have been transformed into zombies. No explanation is provided for the source of the plague, nor is it explained how the original victims were infected, since by the time the narrative begins the infection spreads by bite. Nevertheless, the action starts 80 years after the initial outbreak. The western United States has devolved into a disconnected series of ghost towns overrun by zombies, and the government is awarding bounties in exchange for the pinkies of the undead.
Hoot is a cowpuncher, somewhat addicted to liquor (when he can get it). His sweetheart, the rancher's daughter, tells him that if he ever takes another drink, their engagement is at an end.
Marguerite becomes weary as the hours and the Overland Limited roll on. Her trip from New York to the far west was a tedious one, and it is with a sigh of relief that she steps from the observation platform to pluck some flowers. The train had stopped for water. Marguerite wanders into the woods and when she returns, discovers that the train had pulled off. She is alone in a new country, without friends or funds.
Brown arrives in the town of, yes, Gunsight, in the company of saddle pal Raymond Hatton. Like a new broom, Brown sweeps clean, going after the town's corrupt element.
Rangers Tex Wyatt, Jim Steele, and Panhandle Perkins are en route to Boulder City to investigate the murder of rancher Dan Clark when they happen upon Trigger Farley, a gunslinger hired by Cole Melford, the chief suspects in Clark's murder.
Tom Cameron, aka the Lone Rider, and his faithful sidekick, Fuzzy Jones, flee across the Rio Grande to avoid assassination by crooked lawman Deputy Hatfield, only to have the Mexican cops accuse Cameron of being the notorious bandit El Puma. At Hatfield's behest, they are also accused of kidnapping the local mayor's son, and now the pair must prove their innocence and find a way to stop Hatfield's lawless ways.
A bunch of unscrupulous men make havoc of a tribe of Indians to take their land. A survivor of the massacre decides to avenge his people by killing the whole bunch one by one.
Maria Lopez is the daughter of an American mother and a Mexican father, who is the head of a band of insurgents. As a child, she was kidnapped by her father and raised south of the border to hate gringos. She begins to like them a lot better when, during an escape from some Mexican "Rurals," she crosses the border and is captured by Texas Ranger Danny O'Neil. He lets her go, and they fall in love, but their romance is interrupted when she hears that her father has been captured by Americans.
Victoria Stokes, a young daughter of a wealthy businessman, runs away to escape an arranged marriage with an evil coal tycoon businessman Langley Prescott so she can instead be with the man she truly loves, Joshua Forbes.
Steve Holden and his men successfully raid a wagon train. Among the local ranchers who decide to stop the raiding are Virgil Trent and his daughter Gail. At a meeting, Sidney Padgett, Cannonball and other townspeople conclude that someone is tipping the gang off on important shipments. Trent volunteers to contact the outlaws. He meets Steve and persuades him to cross to the side of the law and protect the ranchers. Steve soon suspects Padgett and tricks him into revealing his identity as the secret leader of the bandits, and in a furious battle between Steve's men and the outlaws, the former win.
Captain Stanton, who because of a misunderstanding over a woman with Major Davolo, has been cited for a court martial. As a scout, he is sent to escort a wagon train which is under military escort. It turns out that this escort is his own former regiment. When he meet Davolo, there is another fight and between Stanton and Davolo in which Davolo is killed.
A young man meets with violent hostility as he attempts to fulfil his dream of making a life for himself in the wilds of British Columbia at the turn of the 20th Century.
An otherwise honest gambler, played by Jack Holt, begins to cheat at cards in order to put his son John Darrow through mining school in this lavish Zane Grey adaptation produced by Paramount. The callow foster-son pays back the noble gesture by running off with Holt's mistress, Olga Baclanova.