A Louisiana con man enters his steamboat into a winner-take-all race with a rival while trying to find a witness to free his nephew, about to be hanged for murder.
Clay Tallant comes to Silver City, Arizona in the 1880s and encounters wide-spread lawlessness and disorder, unscrupulous politicians, outlaws galore and brow-beaten citizens. He accepts the position of town marshal and, with his brother and a reformed outlaw , Tex Randolph, who comes over to his side, sets out to bring law-and-order where none exists. He also wins the hand of the singer appearing at the Opera House.
Jack Marian isa gambler with an unsavory past. Suspected of being an outlaw, Jack plays along with this misconception, the better to infiltrate a gang of smugglers. Along the way, he clears the name of the brother of Texas ranger Mike Donovan, and helps patch up the romance between Donovan and heroine Bernice.
Hobo poet Sundown Slim meets his old friend Billy Corliss in a Western saloon. Billy, in poor health as a result of injuries sustained in a train wreck, now owns the Concho cattle ranch with his brother Jack who runs the ranch. Sundown obtains a job at the Concho and becomes embroiled in the Corliss' battle with their sheeprancher neighbors, the Fernandos. When Loring, one of Jack's employees, attacks Fernando's daughter Anita, Jack fires him but Fernando, not satisfied, vows revenge on Jack, then shoots Billy by mistake.
Cowboy Lin McLean's restlessness takes him to Denver, where he becomes enamored of a waitress named Katie. Intending to marry her, Lin accompanies Katie back to the ranch, but a traveling rainmaker arrives in the little town, and Katie departs with him after revealing that he is her husband. Visiting Denver for Christmas, Lin adopts Katie's abandoned son Billy, and soon afterwards, the cowboy meets and falls in love with the new station agent, Jessamine "Jessie" Buckner. Lin and Jessie marry, and the little family is happy until Katie, determined to be rid of her neglectful husband and marry Lin instead, appears and drives Jessie away. Realizing that Lin does not love her, Katie poisons herself, and Jessie returns to Lin and Billy.
During World War I, westerner Cheyenne Harry is a horse seller, but he refuses to part with his favorite horse and friend, Cactus. One night, broke and drunk, he sells Cactus to an Englishman for $350 which he soon loses gambling. When Harry discovers that Cactus is being sent to the war in France and probable death, he gets a horse- tending job on the ship. When they get the opportunity Harry jumps off the ship with Cactus and they swim to shore. Harry is eventually caught but is allowed to work off his debt and keep Cactus.