Gene Autry (Gene Autry), foreman of an absentee-owner ranch, agrees to a ruse to help an elderly friend, Dad Haskell (Frank Darien), who has lied in letters to his daughter Betty (Jean Rouveral) back east, telling her he is a wealthy rancher. When his daughter, her prospective bridegroom, Walter Gregory (George Wolcott) and his haughty mother, Mrs. Gregory (Margaret Armstrong) arrive, Gene helps Dad Haskell deceive them into believing the ranch is the old man's. Gene and the cowhands pretend to turn the place into a dude ranch. However, the ruse is ruined when the real owner arrives, compounded by some unscrupulous crooks who have discovered helium gas on the range and plot to steal it for a foreign power.