Elam "Burning Daylight" Harnish is a prospector who makes a million dollars in the Dawson, Alaska gold rush and loses the million dollars in Dawson. He journeys to San Francisco, makes three million dollars and loses it in San Francisco. He returns to Alaska and eventually finds his treasure.

With little luck at keeping a job in the city a New Yorker tries work in the country and eventually finds his way leading a herd of cattle to the West Coast.

In Spain, a band of gypsies poach the deer in a neighboring estate. The gypsy chief, Tser (Harold Truesdale), is murdered in cold blood, and the estate owner Winston Graham (Jack Holt) is blamed. The chief's daughter Mona (Dorothy Revier) is an expert knife-thrower and sets out to avenge her father.

Upon striking oil on his farm, Silas T. Pettingill (Charles Eldridge) moves to Park Avenue at the behest of his social-climbing wife Maria (Kate Blancke) and daughter Helen (Emmy Wehlen). But like Jiggs in the comic strip, Pettingill never loses his common touch, and one evening he goes out on a toot with his new chauffeur Hubert Stanwood (Paul Gordon).

A cowboy begins to do such un-cowboylike things as dressing up and taking baths in order to impress a pretty young girl. He sees that a citified "dandy" is also after the girl, and the dude seems to be scoring some points with his "civilized" demeanor.

Bud Watkins loses his ranch and savings to gambling house proprietor "Gentlemen Jim" Slade. The Cocopah Kid, a notorious bandit, lures away Betsy Burke, Bud's sweetheart and the daughter of the local sheriff.

Its time for the big race and its the Rambling Kid riding Dynamite versus Wilson's horse Thunderbolt. When Gyp informs Wilson that Lightning is faster, Wilson has Gyp drug the Kid's coffee just before the race.

Blaze Burke, rough-and-ready lumberjack, is promised the job of camp boss if he eliminates a gang of lumber poachers. He is doublecrossed and the job goes to Milton Symmons, the employer's nephew.

During World War I, Francine D'Espard, a young French woman, meets William Holliday, a U.S. Army officer at the front, and they become engaged. Returning to America, William finds his father at the mercy of his business rival, Ezekiel Bates. Shortly after, when Francine arrives in America to marry her fiancé, she is informed that her lover is about to marry Bates's daughter Susan. Her love now turning to hate, Francine devotes herself to the task of destroying her former suitor.

Dance-hall girl Dolly Wall invests her life savings in an oil well. A gusher comes in, enriching not only Dolly but her ne'er-do-well socialite sweetheart Royce Wingate. While Wingate hobnobs with the Upper Crust, poor Dolly is left home alone, stigmatized by her "scandalous" past.