During the California gold rush, four unsuccessful miners assume that a woman prospector will give in without a fight, so they jump the claim of Kate Kenner and take her gold away from her. Afterward, although she is Sheriff Dan Deering's sweetheart, Kate decides to take the law into her own hands.
The new minister en route to a new western town to preach loses one of his suitcases containing his clerical robes. It is found on the road by Pete and Ike, cowboys of the Bar X Ranch, who decide to play a huge joke on the boys of their town.
Lieut. Wallace leaves his fiancée, Dorothy West, to cross the border with his troops into Mexico. Later he is wounded, captured and taken to the hacienda of the Mexican officer, Senor Paranze, where his wounds are dressed by Senora Paranze. The latter falls in love with the American when he defends her from her brutal husband.
Wally Bristow is a wealthy young chap infatuated with a heartless society girl. He discovers that she is not true to him and leaves her. At the club he runs into an argument among the members to the effect that none of them could start out with nothing and return in a year, married and successful. Wally takes his friends up on the bet. Wally goes west and secures employment on a ranch. He becomes the butt of the cow punchers jokes, and his employer's daughter thinks him a prig until, one day, she observes him thrash a ranch bully for ill-treating a dog. Soon after she promises to be his wife. The society girl, meantime, hears of it and starts west to break up the match. Arriving in the neighborhood she sends a note to her rival saying that the man is untrue to her and to go to a certain place and she will see him with another woman.
For five years Dorothy had put up with her husband although all his refinement, delicacy and love had long since been drowned in drink. Dorothy had reached the turning point. She answered an advertisement calling for a leading woman to accompany a repertoire show west. She was given the position and that night left.
Fey Iron, an amicable traveler, confronts her natural urges when she encounters a lone man in the desert. We follow Fey and her older sister Dylan through a day of their life. They are gentle with plants, animals and each other but in a world where the roles of men and women are reversed, can women really be held at fault for the dark side of their God-given tendencies?
Mary Adams, about to visit relatives in a distant part of the country, is entrusted to the care of Manuel Bond. The girl's beauty inflames Bond, a gambler and a scoundrel. That night, when the stagecoach halts, Mary is horrified to discover that Bond has registered for both as man and wife. The gambler turns a deaf ear to the girl's frantic pleas. After locking her in the room, the scoundrel proceeds to the barroom. Mary escapes by means of the window. The girl comes upon a party of settlers. Mary joins the party. Later, the girl meets Kit, a young backwoodsman. It is a case of love at first sight and the two are married the same day.
Disregarding the sanctity of "Song Bird's" feelings, John Strong, a young surveyor in the pioneer forests of the west, makes love to the Indian maiden whenever he chances to meet her, until she longs and looks for his coming and going, and finds that he has made himself part of her life.
A mountaineer, who has been shot by a pursuing sheriff, is concealed by a mountain girl in her cabin. When the sheriff arrives, she gives him whiskey, while secretly removing the bullets from his gun.
A man is a fugitive from the law. A reward of $2,000 is offered for his capture. A large posse is on his trail. Weary, hungry and haunted, the refugee is slowly but surely being hemmed in.
Miller conceives a bitter hatred for Howard, his successful rival for the hand of Ruth, daughter of Colonel Cameron, commandant of a western array post. A party of immigrants, ignorant of Indian customs, destroy some burial scaffolds. The desecration is witnessed by the red men and a desperate battle ensues.
An old arrowmaker's daughter, while at the stream, meets a brave from another tribe. They become enamored of each other in the sudden positive way of the savage, and agree to meet at sunset. The chief of the tribe to which the girl belongs, covets and demands her of her father. The father consents, but the girl rebels. At sunset, she meets her lover and tells him what her fate is to be. He tells her that when the moon shines, he will come for her and take her away.
Dorothy and her father have staked all their hopes on their mine. While they are awaiting the arrival of Mr. Reid, who is to report on the value of the mine, Pedro, a Mexican, makes familiar advances to Dorothy and is sternly repulsed. Reid arrives and a mutual attraction springs up between himself and Dorothy, to the chagrin of Pedro.
Reed and Rosson are owners of the Yellow Aster mine. They have taken out enough gold to make the final payment, which is due. Both brothers love the same girl, Pauline, but she prefers Reed. Reed saves an Indian, Eagle Eye, from the drunken taunts of a half-breed, and the latter swears vengeance.
The old homestead involved had been passed from father to son and was about to be wrested from them by an avaricious corporation. Lawsuits were started, but the corporation managed to gain the best of the argument, when Ruth took the law into her own hands, held up the coach, and stored the big strong box in the bushes. Notices offering big rewards were posted conspicuously and Ruth lost her fortitude. The reward was increased, Ruth disclosed the location of the treasure, but refused the reward. The company's agent lost his nerve, and as appreciation, deeded back the old homestead to Ruth.