Blinky, the bespectacled son of Col. "Raw Meat" Islip, is scorned by his fellow cavalrymen stationed on the Mexican border because his previous military experience was as a Boy Scout.
Believing he has committed murder, Sam Pertune, a simple westerner, enlists in the Navy, then cannot get released when he learns that his "victim" is alive.
Duke Travis returns from the war suffering from shell shock and an inordinate fear of guns. His father, a ranch owner, refuses to accept Duke's disability and considers him a coward.
"Pep" Pepper, a romantic cowboy whose faculty for dreaming loses him his job, tries to emulate Don Quixote's courage after reading the Spanish classic.
"Katy" Didd holds up the stage in which his sweetheart, Alice Mason, is traveling to her wedding to Prince Tetlow, to whom her guardian insists that she be married. Katy hides her at his ranch, but Tetlow finds her and abandons Katy in the desert.
Andy Walker, bullied and taunted with being a coward, leaves town on a freight. The brakeman shoots two ruffians, but Andy is hailed as the hero and made a deputy sheriff.
Trained by his Quaker mother to be gentle, Cyril Henderson receives only laughter from the townspeople when he tries to act tough to impress Grace Nolan, who is allowing Art Jordan, the town bully, to occupy her time so as to pique Cyril. The murder of Andrew McBride, who holds the mortgage on the Henderson's property, is blamed on the elder Henderson, and Cyril unsuccessfully tries to take the blame.
Wyoming cattleman Laramie Lad takes a vacation by visiting an old friend who runs a summer resort, but before he can relax, he meets Jane Sheridan and her father, Al Sheridan, who are fighting off a group of swindlers who want the old man's mining property.
Harley P. Hennage, town gambler, takes under his protection Dana Corbaly when her widowed mother dies. He becomes suspicious of the motives of Bob McGraw, a young engineer who has come to town to investigate the mining claim of Dana's father, John Corbaly. But events reveal that he is only the tool of Corbaly's former partner, capitalist T. Morgan Carey.
Cowboy Simplex Cox, now a drifter and odd-job seeker, lands the assignment of chaperoning the pretty daughter of cattleman "Five-Notch" Arnett. Laura Arnett has a weakness of falling in love with every man she meets---Simplex Cox the exception---and it is Simp's job to keep her from meeting any. However, too late, as she has succumbed to the polished, oily charms of Hubert Bolston, who has dastardly designs upon Arnett's land and intends getting them by marrying the daughter.
Bert Lyons returns to the Grainger spread from the "outside world" to find his former employer dead and the ranch in the possession of Calvert, a narcotics smuggler, and Blackie Lopez, a rustler who has his eyes on Molly Grainger, Lyons' sweetheart.
Returning from service in the A. E. F., Dale Garland is given a rousing reception by his townsmen. County political boss Nebo Slayter persuades the community to nominate Dale for sheriff--thinking he can be easily manipulated--against John Millard, the incumbent, who refuses political compromises. Dale easily wins and pledges to give the citizens an honest deal. Millard's daughter, Alice, who is Dale's childhood sweetheart, learns of Slayter's dishonest schemes and sees his men murder a moonshiner for whom they had been furnishing protection.
Brother of Lorraine Leighton is falsely accused of rustling and murder and shipped off to jail. Desperate, Lorraine enlists the help of rancher Vic Collins and the two track down the real culprit, evil Pidge Walters.
The Bearcat, alias The Singin' Kid, crosses the Rio Grande into Three Pines, singing bloodthirsty verses, but in spite of these, he makes friends with Sheriff Bill Garfield and likewise with Alys May, daughter of cattle rancher John P. May, by saving her from a runaway. As a reward, he gets a job on the ranch and falls in love with Alys, though warned she is engaged to Aitken, her brother's college chum.
Bill Perkins, a war veteran bumming his way across the country with an airplane pilot, is forced to disembark via parachute when he arrives at a familiar spot. He lands in the midst of a cattlemen's dispute, gets a job as a dishwasher, and learns of a conspiracy to steal the ranch from its absent heir.
Gilead is a lumber town that is dominated by two branches of the Kidder family: the puritanical, ultra-conservative side led by Enoch and his son John, and the hedonistic branch led by Enoch's brother Aaron. Aaron plans to sway John to come over to his side by using a young girl who has lost her memory to lure him over, but when he kidnaps her John sets out to free her. Complications ensue.
Partners "Smilin' Bob" Corey and Jim O'Neil are forest rangers sent to peacefully "penetrate" Paradise Valley, which is scheduled to become part of a national park. Although the townspeople are sullen about their presence, they manage to befriend Marie Roselli, an Italian girl whose brother Wolf owns a cattle ranch and from they obtain supplies. Before they; know it, Bob and Jim get caught up in a kidnapping, an illegal logging ring, and a murder.
Santa Fe, a tramp, is saved from a jeering mob in the desert town of Caliente by Annette, the sheriff's daughter; and after adopting Pard he gets a job as a porter in the bank. Santa Fe learns that the leading banker, Coulter, is in league with a band of outlaws, and when Coulter frames Dick Farwell, Annette's fiancé, Dick is suspected of robbery and is captured by the outlaws.
Molly Killbride, daughter of the inspector in the Royal Mounties, is in love with trooper Jimmy Hearn, but her father prefers that she marry Harry Morgan, a wealthy young civilian. Morgan, however, is allied with a gang of outlaws headed by Hanley, and when Morgan taunts Jimmy into a fistfight the gang causes him to be railroaded to prison for felonious assault.
While in an army camp waiting to be discharged, Lt. Frank Hayden sees a fellow officer, Capt. Kincaid, attacking a girl. He stops Kincaid, thrashing him soundly in the process. However, to avoid a court-martial for striking a fellow officer, Hayden deserts and flees to the desert. He comes across Tom Doyle, who is stranded and dying of thirst, and takes Doyle back to his home. He meets and falls in love with Doyle's daughter Kitty.