An opportunistic Texas gambler and the exiled Creole daughter of an aristocratic family join forces to achieve justice from the society that has ostracized them.
Hoppy, California and Johnny partner up with brother and sister ranch owners, two of several who are having their access to water blocked by a dam owned by a greedy merchant in town, who is intent on driving them out and taking their land for himself.
Boston pharmacist Tom Craig comes to Sacramento, where he runs afoul of local political boss Britt Dawson, who exacts protection payment from the citizenry. Dawson frames Craig with poisoned medicine, but Craig redeems himself during a Gold Rush epidemic.
In Hoyt City, a statue of founder Ethan Hoyt is dedicated, and 100 year old Hannah Sempler Hoyt (who lives in the last residence among skyscrapers) is at last persuaded to tell her story to a 'girl biographer'. Flashback: in 1848, teenage Hannah meets and flirts with pioneer Ethan; on a sudden impulse, they elope. We follow their struggle to found a city in the wilderness, hampered by the Gold Rush, star-crossed love, peril, and heartbreak. The star "ages" 80 years.
McCord's gang robs the stage carrying money to pay Indians for their land, and the notorious outlaw "The Oklahoma Kid" Jim Kincaid takes the money from McCord. McCord stakes a "sooner" claim on land which is to be used for a new town; in exchange for giving it up, he gets control of gambling and saloons. When Kincaid's father runs for mayor, McCord incites a mob to lynch the old man whom McCord has already framed for murder.
The local school is causing Hoppy problems. First Bar 20 cattle are stolen when Hoppy investigates a problem there. Then the new teacher arrives and disrupts the routine of the Bar 20 hands. Later with the Bar 20 hands at graduation, the rustlers are poised to strike again. But there is dissension among them and this will lead to the break that Hoppy needs.
Bradley and sidekick Sharpe are sent west to investigate the murders of pony express riders who are being killed to prevent the Spanish Land Grant papers going to Washington for registration.
The parents (Horace B. Carpenter)(Vane Calvert) of Smokey Smith (Bob Steele) are murdered while traveling with a wagon train that is attacked by outlaws. Smokey swears revenge but his only possible chance lies in finding the member of the border-gang who took a ring from his father's finger. The sheriff (Earl Dwire) of a nearby border town makes Smokey a deputy after the latter saves his life when outlaws attack a stagecoach the sheriff is escorting. This enables Smokey to find the hideout of the gang that killed his parents, and he, posing as a wanted man, is able to join the gang. He soon incurs the wrath of gang-member Kent(Warner Richmond), who is jealous over the attention that Bess Bart (Mary Kornman, step-daughter of the gang-leader, "Blaze" Bart (George 'Gabby' Hayes), is showing Smokey.
Capt. James Stewart pursues the bandit "The Kinkajou" over the Mexican border and falls in love with Rita, though he suspects that her brother is the bandit.