Little Joe is his family's only hope when he escapes from a kangaroo court that has framed the Cartwrights for a bank robbery and sentenced them all to hang.

The Cartwrights encourage young genius, Albert Michelson, to pursue his scientific experiments while trying to discover why schoolmaster, George Norton, expelled Albert from school and seems determined to stand in the way of his appointment to the prestigious Annapolis Naval Academy.

The Cartwrights may have to take the law into their own hands when Virginia City's temporary sheriff, rancher Asa Moran, uses his new badge as a license to kill.

The Cartwright boys help cowhand Hank romance reluctant teacher Abigail.

Tucson gunman, Jack Groat, swore to kill Sheriff Lem Partridge for putting him in prison after a bullet from Groat's gun during a drunken street brawl accidentally killed Sheriff Partridge's wife. Now, 10 years later and fresh out of prison, Groat has tracked retired Lem Partridge to Virginia City and is soon holding Lem's son, Jimmy, and good friend Ben Cartwright hostage. But things go bad and Ben must soon explain to Lem - and try to convince himself - that there was nothing he could have done that day to stop Groat from shooting Jimmy in the back.

The woman that Hoss is smitten with turns down his marriage proposal when a stranger in town sweet talks her with the promise of excitement and adventure. However, Hoss soon discovers that the man is only after her money and is asked by her father to go save her after she runs away with the new man.

Hoss comes across a blind girl named Gabrielle who was recently orphaned when her parents died in an overturned wagon. When he brings her back to the Ponderosa, the Cartwright's set out to find her a loving home, but she has her sights set to go live with her grandfather: an old hermit who wants nothing to do with her or anyone else.

The Cartwrights must try to get help for Adam, seriously wounded by an Apache bullet, and find out why Cochise and his warriors have threatened to kill them all if they don't hand over an army captain taking refuge in their trail camp.

When their spring-fever antics injure miserly businessman, Jedediah Milbank, requiring recuperation at the Ponderosa, Ben orders each of his sons to carry out one of Mr. Milbank's seemingly simple tasks, unaware that they may prove impossible for the kind-hearted Cartwright boys to complete.

The brother of a man Hoss killed in self-defense says he understands but secretly plans revenge.