Canine star Rin Tin Tin makes his all-talking (all-barking?) debut in Warner Bros.' Frozen River. In characteristic fashion, Rinty braves the elements to rescue heroine Jane from the villains, a gang of cutthroats and thieves.
Bill Mathews mistakenly comes to believe that his sweetheart, Sally Brown, prefers the company of his brother, Henry, to that of his own and dejectedly goes to the city, where he finds work driving a truck. Six months later Bill returns home; that very day, the Delno gang robs the bank and kidnaps Sally. Bill follows the outlaws in a plane and parachutes into their mountain hideout; he captures Delno's men and rescues Sally, who quickly convinces him that she has never loved another.
Duke Carlton, an actor stranded in a small western town, gets a job as a cowboy on Tim O'Brien's ranch as a reward for beating up "Flash" Corbin, a real estate agent who has been trying to swindle the rancher. A romance develops between the actor and Patsy O'Brien, the rancher's daughter, but it is interrupted by the appearance of his former stage partner, Vera Van Swank, who claims him as her husband. He clears himself of the bigamy charge, foils a plot to cheat the rancher out of a $90,000 land property, and wins the daughter's hand.
Marie Devere and Helen Gray are two sophisticated, gold-digging chorus girls on the look-out to marry a rich man, who measure the men they meet by their Bradshaw ratings. They befriend Lettie Crain, a country girl who comes near being deceived by Bartley Mortimer, a rich playboy. She is saved by another girl, Cynthia Kane, whose life Mortimer has ruined, and Lettie finds happiness with Bob Garrett, a poor but honest working man.
Jim Gordon, the son of a proud and loving father, enters the University of California as a student. There he meets Mary Ward, a campus coed who captures his heart on the first day. He becomes close friends with Larry Powell, his roommate, but incurs the wrath of Kenneth Slade, who is unable to take a practical joke. Jim and Larry attend a campus dance with Bessie and Phyllis, two vamps, and through a series of romantic complications Jim tries to convince Mary of his love for her.
Jim Wallace, a young engineer, is engaged by Hammond, manager of an estate in the Northwest, to build flumes for a logging camp, but Donovan, the superintendent, dislikes him and places numerous obstacles in his way. Virginia Coulson, owner of the estate, and her maid Dot arrive, and when Hammond proposes to Virginia, she refuses his declaration in favor of Jim. Later, when Donovan is found murdered, suspicion points to Jim, who is convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. Hammond gets evidence on the murderer, Goofus, a half wit, and plans to use it to force Virginia to marry him; Goofus wounds Hammond and, seeing he has not killed him, starts a forest fire. Jim, who has escaped from prison with the aid of his friend, Buddy, rescues Virginia from the burning lodge; Goofus confesses to the murder, and Jim is freed.