Jenny Pendleton runs away from her father and stepmother, back to her deserted house on Walton's Mountain. Jenny and John-Boy meet and fall deeply in love, but she is soon traumatized by her father's sudden accidental death and ultimately moves away with the stepmother.

A gypsy family is stranded by a broken wagon during a thunderstorm and break into the temporarily unoccupied Baldwin house for shelter. Despite hostility from others in the community, the Waltons allow them to camp on their property while Grandma tends their sick baby.