In this early musical western, Stephen Ghent (Ian Keith) is a businessman who, after the death of his partner, has been helping to support Ruth Jordan (Dorothy Mackaill), the late man's college-age daughter. While visiting a town near the Mexican border on business, Ghent is shocked to discover Ruth has become a jaded and hard-drinking sophisticate. Convinced she needs a healthy dose of the great outdoors and the simple life, Ghent kidnaps her disguised as a Mexican bandit and carries her away to an isolated cabin in the hills. As the masked cowboy attempts to teach Ruth about the virtues of the simple life, she finds herself falling in love with her captor, though she has a rival for his affections in hot-blooded servant girl Manuella (Myrna Loy). Fancy Baggage was released both as a talking picture and in a silent version, designed to play in small-town theaters (where westerns were perennially popular) which had yet to be wired for sound.