Carefee cowpoke Chuck Conner (McCrea) is suddenly saddled with four kids after his best friend (a widower and the boys' father) is killed riding Chuck's horse. He takes a job at a ranch but has to keep the kids on the down-low, which is made more difficult by the addition of Della--a runaway girl from a neighboring ranch. To make matters worse, Chuck finds evidence of cattle rustling and the rustlers don't much like Chuck snooping around.