Sam Madden and his daughter Emily run a general store in a small Western town. One of their frequent visitors and one who Madden especially admires is Grey Deer, an educated Indian, and on his deathbed, at the opening of the story, he exacts a promise from Emily that she will wed Gray Deer when he dies.
Gordon Olcott, an eastern millionaire, goes west and examines large tracts of land with the view of purchasing a tract, intending to build a summer home. After selecting a suitable tract, covering several thousands of acres, he learns that a miner, working a claim on a portion of his tract has refused to vacate.
A girl deserts her cowboy sweetheart and marries a gambler. In a short time she realizes her mistake and is thrust from the house when ill. Vainly she tries to induce her husband to take her back, but he refuses and she falls by the wayside in a dying condition, where she is found by her former lover. After she dies he hunts out her husband, forces him to go to the house and see her body and then gives him the choice of a vial of poison or bullets from is revolvers.
Broncho Bill of Snakeville, is on one of his sprees. Loaded down with all kinds of artillery, he comes up Main Street, firing both pistols. He first visits the town bar and chases everybody out; he breaks into the hotel and causes a panic there; breaks up a prayer meeting; puts an English tourist to flight; grabs the boot off of "Alkali" Ike's foot and shoots at it in the air. Finally, tired of his sport, he borrows a horse and starts for home, shortly after to be pursued by the sheriff and his posse.
Young Harry Farman and Eloise Wendell are engaged to be married. Harry is a wealthy young fellow and Eloise is a society girl, and both find pleasure in their clubs and other such luxuries that the city affords the fashionable, wealthy set. Eloise, who has rode a hobby of philanthropy is engaged with her club and other clubs, who are holding a tag day, the funds to go to the children of the poor. Eloise, with another friend, invades a saloon in a fashionable hotel, and are invited to have a drink by two men seated at a table. Eloise, in fun, lifts the glass to her lips when Farman enters. The match is broken off and the next day Farman, with a friend, goes west.
'Spike' Shannon, a pugilist by occupation, signs to fight a 10-round bout, with another young knight of the ring. A contract is drawn and 'Spike' and his backers leave the office of the promoter. On the street they encounter a young couple, evidently at outs, but which proves later, upon the girl's explanation, to be a flirtation, in which she has no desire to take part. The masher has insolently insulted her. 'Spike' takes in the situation at once and with his strong right arm knocks the dude sprawling.
Broncho Billy loses his job and is forced to go west in search of employment. He lands in a small western town, where he takes up gold mining. Stockdale, a westerner, also meeting with bad luck, consults Broncho Billy, and the two determine to hold up the stagecoach that day.
Two pals, Jack Manley and John French, are employed on a large ranch in Wyoming. French falls sick with fever and Jack goes for a doctor. This latter, however, refuses to accompany Jack without his payment in advance and Jack, in despair, is forced to depart without the doctor. Back at the bunkhouse he conceives the plan to hold up a pony express rider
After successfully eluding the London police, David Goodwin, an embezzler, sails for America and locates in the west. At the opening of our story, he is married and has several little children, and has become a thoroughly respectable and honorable citizen. One day he is reminded of the past by a newspaper item which states that the London embezzler has been located
May Barclay, returning from the east, is met at the station by her father, a wealthy cattle king. On passing the town saloon, two members of Buck Brady's gang, known and feared throughout the country for lawless depredations, see May and determine to steal her and hold her for ransom.
Unable to apprehend a certain daring outlaw, who had for the second time successfully held up an express train, the general manager of the road employs the services of a well-known detective to hunt down the bad man. Clarington, the detective, visits the scene of the hold-up, and decides that the outlaw must still be in the vicinity
When Bill Hinchley is wrongfully imprisoned his wife, Mary, becomes a schoolteacher out of necessity concealing from the school trustees that she is the wife of a convict. Sneaky Pete, Bill's cellmate, steals a letter from Mary to Bill, and, his term expired, follows Mary and extorts her, by threatening to cause her to lose her job by revealing her secret. Attempting to escape Bill gives up his chance at freedom to rescue the warden's children - and is later pardoned, coming home to wreak vengeance on Sneaky Pete, and justify Mary's faith in him.
Wilton Shaw, a young author, has been advised by his physician to go west for his health and the opening scenes of this picture finds him in a little town in Montana, seeking board and lodging. Jim Walker, a backwoodsman, offers him a home with him and his wife, and he accepts. Arriving at the rough hut of the Walkers, Shaw is introduced to Walker's wife.
Broncho Billy hears a child scream and rushes on the scene in time to prevent Jim Haley, a big brute of a man, from beating his little daughter, Josie, with a horse whip. Later, Haley and Pedro, a half-breed, are caught rustling cattle and are given the customary treatment, but not before Haley writes a note to Josie, stating that the boys will take care of her. The boys send Josie east to school and ten years later, when she returns a young lady, they all fall in love with her.
Upon the death of her father, Ann Newton is made the heiress of an extensive and valuable ranch in Arizona, when she is visited by the officials of the S.W. Railroad Company, who, seeking to extend the tracks of their company, find it necessary to buy a portion of the ranch. Ann refuses to part with the ranch at any price
Young Gilbert Randel, an American surveyor, is sent to Mexico with a construction gang, and quartered in a small Mexican village, meets Pepita, a beautiful Mexican girl, with whom he falls in love. After frequent visit to the cottage of Pepita, Gilbert proposes to the girl and she consents to the marriage.
William Hart, a prospector in the west, who, with his wife and child sought vainly for gold day after day, while hope waned and starvation faced them. One day while alone save for Nellie, their little girl, Mrs. Hart is visited by two tramp Mojave Indians who, with threats of vengeance, make her give them food.
Dorothy Sloane, the daughter of a white settler in the west, leaves her home one day for a ride on horseback to the village, but on the way in intercepted by a party of Indians who, after a hard chase, capture her and taking her to the village, bring her before the chief.
To err is human, but in the end, goodness of heart will prevail and the one who has committed an offense against man-made laws may come out of the mire and develop into a law abiding and god-fearing citizen. Broncho Billy, from being one of the most desperate characters in the west, is reformed through the kind treatment accorded him at the hands of the sheriff and his wife, and is made deputy.