Ward Warren, who has served a prison term for the crimes of Buck Olney, returns home and settles on the Wolverine Ranch, operated by Billy Louise, a girl of 18, since her parents' deaths. Buck meets up with Charlie Fox, scapegrace nephew of elderly couple Martha and Jase; deciding to team up as rustlers, they find work with the relatives on a nearby ranch. When cattle are reported missing from the Wolverine, Warren tracks down Olney and threatens him; later, Charlie and Olney engage in a fight that results in Olney's death. The rustlers try to throw suspicion on Warren, and he disappears on a scouting trip, being thrown from his horse and stranded with a broken leg. Worried by rumors of his guilt, Billy Louise rides to his cabin, where she remains until he is fully recovered and declared innocent.
—AFI