The Kinkaids and the Harpers both run stage lines and are friendly competitors. Appleby is after the stage line and convinces the two owners to build a spur line to the same town. Then he has both projects sabotaged pitting the friends against each other and running them out of money.
Marshal Kirk Reed is escorting five female prisoners---killers all--- from one part of Texas to another part of Texas where a new prison has been built. Along the way he has to deal with dissension among the troops, attacks by the Comanches, a budding romance with Ellen, The Missouri Lady, before her ex-husband, The Missouri Kid, shows up in an attempt to rescue her.
Jessie, a young woman at the Bar Z Ranch, who is engaged to Jack Howard. On the day of the cowboys' "hoedown," Jack presents her with an engagement ring and they plan to marry after the roundup. A misunderstanding arises when Jack dances with one of Jessie's friends, causing her to doubt his fidelity. Meanwhile, other ranch hands, inspired by the leap year, also seek to marry, leading to a chaotic series of races and a busy Justice of the Peace.
The prospector had taught the Indian boy the doctrine of peace. When his tribe resisted the attack of another tribe the boy did not take part. The din of the battle, as the horsemen circled them again and again, the moans of men caught under falling horses struck terror in the boy's heart The incensed warriors cast him from the tribe with the brand of a coward. It was then that his opportunity came to follow the white man's wonderful doctrine. "Big love man lay down life for friend,"
Railroad station agent Dan Kurrie is fired from his job by his rival in love, Joseph Garber. Believed false by the girl he loves, Margaret , Kurrie must prove himself by unmasking a gang of bandits preying on the trains.
Hell's Crown, a town where law and order are as scarce as preachers, is ruled by "Chuck" Wells, a former gun man. He has a dupe in Blaze, the terror of the town, and holds him by keeping him well supplied with money. A sheriff is appointed at Carson City on account of the horse rustlers.
The story of The Bay Lady, a quarter horse born on Rex Allen's ranch. The Bay Lady is the favorite filly of Elena Vasquez until the young horse is accidentally shipped from the ranch to be sold at an auction.
Dick Martin, foreman of the Circle E ranch, tells Colonel Gray that his mother is coming to visit them for a short time. The Colonel thinks it's a fine opportunity to invite his three nieces from the city, as Dick's mother could act as their chaperone.
Jack Lane is returning from the East after an unsuccessful attempt to obtain a loan to pay off the mortgage on his father's ranch. On the train, he meets Ellen Rand, who is smitten at the sight of her first real cowboy. Later he learns that she is the nurse who is to care for his paralytic father, growing weaker at the prospect of losing his ranch. Jack plans to enter the local rodeo to earn the money, though Morton Kane, who holds the mortgage and has secretly discovered oil on the ranch, plots with his son Ross to keep him from the events.
Mulford sends Ed Harley to manage Radigan's rundown ranch. He makes a success of it but when called to return, he asks Radigan for a loan. Radigan says he can have the loan but not his daughter, but Ed wants both.
Major Carter, owner of the Sunset mines, reads of a reward offered for Cheyenne Harry if captured. The butler gives him a telegram telling of the flooding of several shafts in his mine. He is soon on the way to the mine in his car. Ruth, his daughter, follows in her roadster.
An outlaw gang is trying to stop the reopening of a mine as they look for the money left there by the famous outlaw Dusty Morton. After a ten year absence, Morton has apparently reappeared and Steve arrives looking for him. He finds his son who also wonders if his father is still alive. With the gang soon after him, the Durango Kid goes into action and Steve tries to learn who the real Dusty Morgan is.
An operative from the Wells Fargo company goes undercover to trap a crooked sheriff and his equally nefarious hirelings in this standard B-Western from A.W. Hackel's low-budget Supreme Pictures Corp.
Aftermath was the pilot for an unsold TV series called "The Code of Jonathan West"; it aired as part of The General Electric Theater. The film takes place just after the Civil War, in a small southern town – war-ravaged, impoverished, and seething with hatred and resentment.