One of the last bills signed by President Lincoln authorizes pushing the Union Pacific Railroad across the wilderness to California. But financial opportunist Asa Barrows hopes to profit from obstructing it. Chief troubleshooter Jeff Butler has his hands full fighting Barrows' agent, gambler Sid Campeau; Campeau's partner Dick Allen is Jeff's war buddy and rival suitor for engineer's daughter Molly Monahan. Who will survive the effort to push the railroad through at any cost?

In the 1840s, Ramsey MacKay, the driver for the struggling Wells Fargo mail and freight company, will secure an important contract if he delivers fresh oysters to Buffalo from New York City. When he rescues Justine Pryor and her mother, who are stranded in a broken wagon on his route, he doesn't let them slow him down and gives the ladies an exhilirating ride into Buffalo. He arrives in time to obtain the contract and is then sent by company president Henry Wells to St. Louis to establish a branch office.

It's just after the Civil War in Kansas and Joan Randall and her troops are continuing the struggle. Jeff Conners is sent to bring her in and when he does she is found guilt and sentenced to hang. Earlier Jeff learned that her assistant Colonel Jedcott is the real culprit and rides to the Governor for a pardon only to be waylaid by Jedcott on the return trip.

A young girl has to prove her skillness with the gun against a gang outlaws, revealing herself as the real heroine of a Western town.