Migual Garcia, a somewhat arrogant Spaniard, alienates pretty much all of the residents of the Flying U Ranch except the owner's young son, Chip Bennett. Dunk Whitaker, who owns a neighboring ranch, has secretly been rustling Flying U cattle and steals a contract guaranteeing the Flying U's rights to a particular waterhole. Not only that, he decides that he wants Bennett's pretty niece, Sally, for himself. Just when things look their darkest, it turns out that Miguel is not quite what he seems to be.

Young Southerners Buck Hineman and Remington Osbury both are in love with the same woman, who promises to marry the one who returns when the Civil War breaks out. On the battlefield, Remington is wounded and left for dead, and Buck returns to marry her. Shortly afterward, Remington returns and contents himself with becoming one of the Hineman family.

Larrabie Keller, a homesteader, is accused of being a cattle rustler, and when Keller refuses to fight Phil Sanderson, whose sister, Phyllis, has struck his fancy, he is insulted by Bill Healy, to whom he administers a severe drubbing. Phyllis, finding Keller beside a branding fire, believes him guilty; and when he is wounded by Healy, she takes Keller to Yeager, another homesteader, who cares for him and to whom he reveals that he is a Texas Ranger.

While Pop Morton, a rancher, is being sworn in as deputy sheriff, his daughter Molly, to escape the unwelcome attentions of usurer Blair Hatley (who holds the mortgage on their ranch), meets Art Downs. Art is mistaken by Steve Baird, one of Hatley's henchmen, for "The Terror," a notorious Arizona bandit, and uses this mistake as an excuse to invade their stronghold, where he finds Molly--kidnaped by the rustlers.

A young rancher rides away on a half-broken broncho. He is suspected of horse stealing and pursued, but retrieves his good name by saving a kidnapped girl and recovering stolen express funds.

Bill Bradley, who owns a small house and a one-horse corral in the hills, saves the lives of Betty Brent and her brother Mike from a forest fire in which their mother has perished. He decides to take care of them. When word spreads that Betty is actually 18, a committee of citizens, headed by Cliff Barrowes, whose father holds a mortgage on Bill's property, calls to protest; the sheriff's wife offers the children a home; and soon after, Cliff begins to woo the girl. Bill, meanwhile, is forcibly held by a trio of outlaws about to flee across the border.

Jeremy Dice, a finisher in a New York East Side tailor shop who prides himself on being a smart dresser and dancer, proves to be cowardly when he retreats from a bully who gets fresh with his girl, and his employer discharges him. Deciding to go out west, Jeremy is caught hitching the rails and comes upon two outlaws in the desert disputing over booty; they are both killed in a shoot-out, and Jeremy is proclaimed a hero by the sheriff.....

An orphan boy from the Kentucky hills joins the Union Army and rescues his adopted family from Morgan's raiders. He learns his real identity when he returns after the war.