George Bailey has spent his entire life giving to the people of Bedford Falls. All that prevents rich skinflint Mr. Potter from taking over the entire town is George's modest building and loan company. But on Christmas Eve the business's $8,000 is lost and George's troubles begin.

Bookkeeper Sam Wilson learns from his boss, Malcolm Jarvis, that he is losing his job because the company is closing down. Jarvis then makes a strange proposition, saying he intends to commit suicide but wants Sam to make it look like a murder, in order for his wife and son to inherit Jarvis's life insurance. Sam declines, but when he goes to see Jarvis and finds his dead body, he reluctantly goes along with the scheme.

A daily news editor recalls a married detective and the deadly woman behind his downfall.

On vacation at his ranch, western actor Roy quickly finds himself involved with a horse rustling operation and a boy ward of one of the rustlers, leading to the kidnapping of Roy's trick horse Trigger by the gang with a demand for ransom.

Major Lex Kearney, dishonourably discharged from the army for cowardice in battle, volunteers to go undercover to try to prevent raids against shipments of horses desperately needed for the Union war effort. Falling in with the gang of jayhawkers and Confederate soldiers who have been conducting the raids, he gradually gains their trust and is put in a position where he can discover who has been giving them secret information revealing the routes of the horse shipments.

A girl owns a horse, and hires a boy as a trainer. The horse enters a race and is injured. The boy takes job at another stable and is semi-seduced by the stable siren. The girl finally rehabilitates the horse then enters it in a big race.

A man has kidnaped an engraver and has him forging Mexican bills. He captures wild horses supposedly to sell for hides but uses them to transport the bills across the border. Police captain Juan Reyes (Richard Avonde) is posing as a bandit to uncover the counterfeiters smuggling fake pesos into Mexico, and is assisted by feisty youngsters Red (Michael Chapin) and Judy (Eilene Janssen), who are trying to protect the wild horses being used by the gang. The kids suspect that rancher Big John Harkins (Roy Barcroft) is the leader of the gang and that he is forcing Mexican artist Espinosa (Julian Rivero) to help him.

Dakota Kid is a young outlaw who joins a gang headed by Ace Crandall. Crandall's aim is to unseat Sheriff Tom White and then use his power to enrich himself at the community's expense. Dakota impersonates a long-lost nephew of the sheriff, and is made a marshal. Through his association with the sheriff's grandson, Red White and his friend Judy, plus falling in love with Mary Lewis, the Kid gradually reforms.

Travelers heading west in a wagon train, under repeated assault by Indians, discover someone in their group is supplying rifles to their attackers.

In Depression-era West Virginia, a serial-killing preacher hunts two young children who know the whereabouts of a stash of money.