Roy Rogers, a highway engineer, strongly favors a youth-rehabilitation camp sponsored by retired State Prison Warden Parker where young first-offenders can be reformed without being exposed to penitentiary life. Andrew Willard, through whose range a new highway is being built, is being secretly robbed of his pure-bred cattle by his crooked foreman Devery who has marketed the cattle and replaced them with scrub stock.He then has the herd stampeded into a landslide set off by dynamite by Roy`s young crew to make them appear responsible for the loss of the "valuable" cattle. Roy takes the blame and is ordered off of the property by Willard, over the protests of his niece June. Then Devery has two of his men, whom he has planted on the guest ranch ran by Splinters McGonigle, steal a diamond brooch belonging to Mrs. Edsel and the blame is placed on one of the work camp boys, Jim Corley.