Johnny Peppercorn doesn't know the value of money - can't seem to realize that a dollar's worth about thirty cents. He is generally useless until a telegram from his guardian brings a great change in his life. The wire tells him that unless he goes west immediately and spends a year on the Circle-X ranch, where they'll make a man of him, his allowance will be cut off. With the aid of his valet, "Slats," and a correspondence school course. Johnny masters the theory of broncho riding, roping and six-gun play and then departs for the wild and woolly West. The boys of the Circle-X are rather agitated. The foreman has just received a warning from Black Bart, the Terror of the Plains, that he is about to pay the ranch a visit. They are in an anxious mood when they meet Johnny and "Slats" but they place them on ponies and start for the ranch house. The bronchos do their well-known western stuff, depositing Johnny in a watering trough and "Slats" on the hard round. After a few days on the ranch. Johnny overhears the foreman planning to play a joke on him. The cowboy are to kidnap Blossom Steele, to see whether Johnny has any sand. But their plans miscarry and Blossom is kidnapped by Black Bart and his henchmen - and Johnny lets them do it, thinking it is the foreman and his crew playing their joke. When he discovers his mistake he jumps on a horse and after a series of incidents, accidents and coincidence, rescues the girl and captures the bad man.