While back home for the town's bicentennial festivities, Ben is retained to defend a man for two homicides linked to a 15-year-old crime.

Matlock uncovers disturbing evidence in his home town while investigating the murder of a writer who witnessed a homicide 15 years before.

On his way to a dude ranch, Ben is knocked unconscious and dreams of himself as a frontier lawyer, with Conrad as a gun slinging client and Julie as the owner of a boardinghouse.