Aided by his hardworking adopted daughter, Alice, "Hardshell" Beckett has turned the Box B Ranch into the gem of Mesquite County, and become a very wealthy man. Smelling a payday, his long-lost wife, who ran off decades earlier, suddenly turns up with Hardshell's "real" son, John. John is an arrogant, lazy, crook whose sole purpose is scheming to inherit his dad's money. When he fails to ingratiate himself, he stabs his father, while framing Alice's sweetheart, "The Kid," for the crime. The only thing that can save "The Kid" from the hangman's noose, are mysterious clues found on "Hardshell's" body.
Lured by the high pay of Hollywood, Kentucky native Raymond Glenn quit the rodeo, changed his name to Bob Custer and started making movies. He gained popularity in the 1920s, appearing in a string of low-budget westerns. However, the advent of sound exposed his inability to deliver lines, and he retired from films in 1936 to utilize his engineering degree, as a building inspector.