When the stagecoach is about to pull out on its daily trip, Jack, the driver, finally locates Tom, the coach guard, in a saloon where a fight is in progress and Jack helps Tom whip several of the cowboys. One of the cowboys vows revenge and plots to hold up the stagecoach.
Tom Martin and Leo Binnis arrive in a small mining town. Andy Johnson, his wife and daughter, Vicky, are also seeking a western home. Jim Brown, a cattleman, poisons the water holes to kill off the wild horses that are eating the range bare, and Johnson and his wife drink from the water hole and die.
Tom Hickson leaves for the Diamond S ranch to become foreman.
Jessie Baird, the postmaster's daughter, handles the registered mail. Hankey, a gambler, seeing the men sending money away from the mining town, decides to rob the stagecoach of the mail bag. He orders Pete, a pal, to board the stage and throw the mail bag off at Deer Creek.
Bill, a cowpuncher, who wants to get married, answers an ad in a matrimonial journal.
Tom is given the position of Cowboy on Sid Jordan's ranch. Vicky, Sid's daughter, is annoyed by Buck, the ranch foreman, who is discharged and Tom is given the position.
Miss Satterly, the new schoolteacher, is loved by all the cowboys of the "Flying U" ranch. Weary is shy and only makes the acquaintance of the pretty schoolteacher by main force on the part of his cowboy companions.
Tom Wallace lives with his uncle, John Higgins, and Tom is the sole heir to his uncle's wealth. Joe Watkins, the sheriff, and Higgins are life-long enemies, and when Higgins discovers that Tom is in love with Fern Watkins, he threatens to disinherit Tom.
Lee Russell, a young business man, leaves the city for a vacation sojourn in the mountains. Jeff Smith and Joe Butler run a moonshine still in the mountains and Jeff is in love with Butler's daughter, Rose, but the love is not returned. Lee Russell, seen near the still by Jeff and Butler, is shot by Jeff and wounded.
A party of settlers emigrating westward with a wagon train to find new homes, go into camp for the night. Tom Golden bids his sweetheart, Nell, good-bye and rides off into the hills to look for hostile Indians. Savages are discovered. Nell offers to go for help, and is captured by Indians after her horse escapes.
Hiram Flint is about to foreclose a mortgage on widow Wilson's ranch. Maude, the widow's daughter, pleads with Flint for further time. He says he might consider it and tries to make love to the girl, who spurns him. This enrages the lawyer, who says that if the mortgage is not paid by four o'clock that day, he will take the place.
Mrs. Murphy runs a boarding house in a small western town and has trouble in keeping a cook, for the cowboy boarders insist upon eloping with them. After losing two cooks, Mrs. Murphy induces a couple of the cowboys to try their skill, but this does not prove successful. An employment agency is importuned to send Mrs. Murphy a girl cook.
Old Si Spunk is dying, and leaves his shack and acres in Montana to Elizabeth Spunk, his niece, in the East. A cowboy finds a photograph of a fierce looking old maid with the name "Elizabeth Spunk" on the back. Thinking this is the niece, Tom and Jerry, two of the cowboys, hit upon an idea to drive her out of the country.
Ma and Dad, with their two daughters, live in a cottage in a small western town. The sheriff is a friend of the family and a frequent visitor. Tom, the gambler, has tried to force his attention on Madge and Rose. The gambler plays cards in a bar-room with an assayer, and breaks him. Thereupon the assayer decides to end his life, but the gambler advances him some money.
Dan Calvert, an outlaw, comes with his plunder to the shack of old man Medford, who has a lovely daughter named Jessie. Calvert, in his plunder, finds money and a letter addressed to Hibbard Sharpe, who is on the outlaw's trail. Medford consents to the outlaw's marriage to his daughter in return for a sum of money.
Saved by a Watch is a silent Western short.
Harding Martin and David Patrick are both desperately in love with Elsie Johnson. Each tries to gain some advantage over his rival. Pretty Elsie coquettishly enjoys their rivalry and fosters it.
Tom Jackson, a young man of good family, is elected sheriff. He is in love with Nell Turner, whose brother, Jack, is a reckless young fellow and belongs to a gang of bank robbers. Tom is popular and loves Nell dearly, while she returns his affections, and they have announced their engagement. Nell has a deep, sisterly love for her scapegrace brother Jack
Rose Boland, a pretty young ranch owner, quarrels with her foreman because she dislikes his attentions. She discharges him from her employ, and her cowboys eject him from the ranch. The disgruntled foreman proceeds to join a band of cattle rustlers and engages with them in the looting of cattle.
Clay Burgess (Tom Mix), a drifter, returns to the small town of Palo to find the president of the bank -- his father -- murdered and the unscrupulous "Big" Dave Dawley (George Nichols) in charge.