As described in a film magazine,[3] Breezy Hart takes charge of his war buddy, Frank Wilcox, who has shell shock so badly that he goes out of his head every time he hears a noise.

Hardy is alarmed when he receives word from the government that Frank Wilcox, believed dead, has been discharged from the service also suffering from shell shock.

Breezy, listening at the kitchen door, hears Hardy plot with a conspirator to accept Tom Marston’s cash offer for the property and burn the original.

[5] The Stolen Ranch was among 14 other silent films portraying the shell shocked soldier as "an honorable, heroic man temporarily disabled by war," the others being Missing (1918), Vive la France!

(1918), The Trembling Hour (1919), Three Live Ghosts (1922), Shattered Dreams (1922), Shell Shocked Sammy (1923), Shootin' for Love (1923), Wandering Fires (1925), The Unknown Soldier (1926), Puppets (1926), Vanishing Hoofs (1926), Closed Gates (1927), Absent (1928), and Burning Bridges (1928).