Prison escapee Utah Evans kills Sheriff McClay. Joe Norton was McClay's predecessor and sent Utah to prison. Ma McClay having taken over as Sheriff for her husband, now gets Joe to return. Joe sets out to get Utah and Utah, learning Joe is after him, hopes to get revenge for being sent to prison.
Christina, the daughter of a Greek-immigrant family who does not share their belief that a woman's place is with her husband at the fireside, is a trick-shot artist. With her Uncle Jim, a strolling troubadour, and his sidekick Andy, a mandolin player, heads west to make her fortune.
Verdugo finds a young boy on the desert and raises him as his son. Now a grown man, Dan is framed for a stagecoach robbery by Brent, the same man that shot his father and tried to take him and his mother away twenty years earlier.
A gang of crooks kills a gold miner while trying to find out the location of the mine. They then terrorize the miner's son to get him to reveal the mine's location.
Tex Robbins, a Texas Ranger, posing as "Wolf" Cassidy, a notorious Chicago gangster, works his way into the rustling gang and hideout of "Three-Star" Henley, but his plans go wrong and he has to fight his way to victory.
Brokaw, the Polka Dot Bandit, asks Farrell to help rob Wells Fargo. Farrell plans to capture Brokaw for the reward but is assumed to be one of the bandits and shot. Brent captures Brokaw, but Ann thinking her father is in on the robbery lets him go. Brent catches up with him only to be framed when the polka dot bandanna is found on his saddle.
Cowboy star Buck Jones made his directorial debut with the Universal western For the Service. Jones is cast as Indian scout Buck O'Bryan, trying his best to keep the peace between the Native Americans and a government outpost. O'Bryan is replaced by George Murphy, the son of commanding officer Captain Murphy. Obviously unqualified for his job, Murphy proves himself a coward and a weakling, forcing O'Bryan to take over when the fort is besieged by outlaw Bruce Howard and his gang.
Heck Claibourne has been involving young Russ Whitely in his cattle rustling schemes, and when they are nearly caught by Sheriff Doug Barrett and deputy O'Hara, their cohort, Luke, shoots and kills O'Hara.
When Tim Barrett rides into Carabinas, his reputation as a lawman precedes him. Rescuing Polly Loomis from the unwanted attentions of a saloon ruffian, he learns her mother married ranch foreman Nick Grindel shortly before her death, and left everything to him in her will. Nick has proposed marriage to his stepdaughter, and she fears violence if her hot-blooded brother Dick finds out. When a body is found at the Bow Knot, Tim barely rescues Dick from a necktie party and is deputized to investigate when Dick confesses to a crime he didn't commit.
Tom Tyler plays a small-town blacksmith, whose reckless younger brother casts his lot with a crooked politician. When brother dear steals $5000 from heroine Margaret Morris, Tyler gallantly confesses to the deed. He eventually clears himself by rallying his fellow frontiersmen to form a united front against the villains (guess he's not so "single-handed" after all).
Leary is using the Express Agent's liking for alcohol to enable his men to steal insured packages. Then he claims the insurance. Railroad Agent Hartley is sent to investigate and suspecting Leary, he and the Sheriff plan to trap them the next time they try their scheme.
There is trouble on the Bar D ranch as cowhand Mile Ahead plans to rustle the herd. He starts a fire on the opposite side of the ranch to keep the hands busy and also kidnaps the new school teacher. Fighting the fire, Foreman Denver leans the cattle are gone and going after Mile Ahead, learns the teacher is a prisoner in the school and the fire that is now out of control is heading her way.
Early silent screen leading man Roy Stewart played a dual-role in this independently produced "Northwestern" about identical twins, separated at birth, who grow up on opposite sides of the law.