A school teacher claims to have killed a bank robber. The townspeople want to celebrate their new hero. It all starts to unravel as his past catches up with him and the people he's lived with want nothing else to do with him.
Cheyenne is called to Washington D.C. to take on a special task for the Army. He is to take the place of married actor/singer/dancer Jim Thornton Merritt who is working with two others to raise money to resurrect the Confederacy.
Cheyenne working for the less than scrupulous Ben Creed as foreman crosses paths with stock owner Thora Flagg who needs help moving her herd to town. She engages Creed in a poker game to win the price to cross his land and Cheyenne.
After Cheyenne takes a cattle herd to Mexico, he is captured by the French. After escaping, he aids a young runaway princess who doesn't like her much older intended husband. He takes her to a rebel camp where they learn her real identity.
A fortune in diamonds awaits anyone who gets to it first. Murder and arson are just some of the ways of keeping some from succeeding. A stranger follows Cheyenne and the treasure hunting party but is he all they have to worry about?
Cheyenne brings a bank robber into town to his old friend Sam. A popular rancher's son is "accidentally" killed by Sam when a drunken mob tries to hang him. It's up to Cheyenne to bring to justice the guilty party and free his friend.
Cheyenne rides into a town looking for a job. He runs into a hired killer he knows who tries to kill him but is shot by the local sheriff. Once he learns who the man was, the sheriff hires Cheyenne to work undercover to find who hired him.
Cheyenne decides to leave a valley engulfed in a ranch war when his boss is bought out. He turns down offers from two other ranches but changes his mind when hands from one leave him to die. He finds love is part of the problem he faces.
Cheyenne, a Marshal, with a deputy tracks down and captures Rafe Larkin who leads the last of the Comancheros. He takes Rafe and the wounded deputy to a town but he finds no help there except for one young man who has a separate desire.
Helping a friend keep her saloon from a crooked gambling combine, Cheyenne runs it while she gets to know her daughter who for ten years has been at school back East and knows nothing of how her mother earned the money that kept her there.
Cheyenne is asked by an Army hero before he dies to help his son enlist in the Army. Cheyenne succeeds but the young man becomes disillusioned because of his horse and a head strong post commander who also is causing an Indian uprising.
Cheyenne is asked by Matt Reardon, a gunfighter, to help him with a mission after he rescues Cheyenne from a fight. Reardon wants to repay a debt to the widow of the first man he killed who was also his partner. Her son gets in the way.
While wagon master of a train, Cheyenne trades for a Comanche prisoner of the Apaches because he notices the boy is white. Cheyenne hopes to convince him to stay with them rather than return to the Comanche but prejudice may stop him.
Cheyenne is forced to join an outlaw gang lead by the "Ghost of the Cimarron". He is the only person who can clear Cheyenne with the law who was framed for reward money. Over time Cheyenne comes to realize why the man is respected.
Cheyenne becomes the trail boss for a widow, and her disobedient crew, to help drive her cattle, but she is unaware the he is the one who killed her bushwhacking husband earlier.
When a young boy is trapped in a cave-in, the locals think the Sioux took him in retribution when Cheyenne's Sioux friend is found with the boy's horse. Cheyenne must prove the truth but a hardcore sheriff doesn't believe him.
In Mexico Cheyenne finds a wounded man he takes to a local village which has a female doctor. He quickly learns the town is being held hostage by a vicious bandit who will burn the village if he doesn't find who shot two of his men.
Cheyenne's partner leaves on private business. When he doesn't return, Cheyenne follows him to determine what happened. Cheyenne finds him in jail where he is shot. Cheyenne finds himself in a mess related to an estate and lawyer.
When Cheyenne visits Jim O'Neil in Texas, he learns he is to hang the next day. Jim refuses to give Cheyenne any details nor did he defend himself at his trial. Against Jim's wishes, Cheyenne investigates the situation to save his friend.
Cheyenne, last member of a posse, is shot by a trap set by the outlaw Black Jack. A sister of woman married to a judge finds him and takes him home at a remote cabin as a winter storm snows them in. The judge leads a dual life.