A mad doctor named Zanoff uses a drug to bring himself back from the dead after his execution in prison. Dick Tracy sets out to capture Zanoff before he can put his criminal gang back together again.

Western settlers are being driven off their homesteads and ranches by a combination of Indian raids and attacks by bands of mysterious outlaws. The government sends out famed Indian scout Kit Carson and army officer David Brent to investigate, and Carson discovers that a villain named Pegleg controls an outlaw gang called the Black Raiders, and is using them and the Indians to drive out the settlers so he can establish his own empire. He determines to set a trap to expose the identity of Pegleg while avoiding traps and ambushes that Pegleg is setting for him.

Filmed in the Sierra Nevada mountains near Sonora, California, this Universal serial is Universal's 40th sound-era serial. Eagle Scout Bruce Scott, leader of Martinsville Troop Number One, and his pack sets off in search of lost treasure and finds adventure.

Dick Tracy battles spies and saboteurs in his efforts to bring to justice the Stark gang, a criminal family led by the vicious Pa Stark.