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A sequel to the 1931 George O'Brien western Riders of the Purple Sage, The Rainbow Trail picks up where the earlier film left off -- sort of. In Riders, fugitive from justice Jim Lassiter (O'Brien) and his sweetheart Jane Withersteen (Marguerite Churchill) escaped to the "lost valley," sealing themselves off from civilization with the aid of a huge boulder. In the sequel, O'Brien assumes the role of Lassiter's nephew Shefford, who has been assigned to search for his missing uncle; thus, in effect, the actor spends the early portions of the film chasing himself. Shefford's search is interrupted by a confrontation with his uncle's old nemesis Dyer (W. L. Thorne), now a masked bandit. On a more pleasant note, our hero inaugurates a romance with the lovely Fay Larkin (Cecilia Parker, in her film debut). Unfortunately, it is necessary to be familiar with Riders of the Purple Sage to be able to follow the convoluted plotline of The Rainbow Trail (both properties, of course, were based on the works of Zane Grey).