Earl Hamner, creator of this series, is host for a 200th-hour special featuring highlights of shows from the past eight years and a visit to the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia to meet with Hamner's own family, the real-life models for the Waltons.

Jim-Bob contemplates failing a school examination so he won't have to be valedictorian. Once he graduates, he and his classmates enlist in the military. Corabeth suggests a too frilly graduation ceremony. Meanwhile, all the Walton boys are sent overseas for active duty when the Allies invade France. Erin gets a "Dear Joan" letter from Ashley Longworth Jr. who married a girl in London. 

When a Mexican American paratrooper who Curt saved at Pearl Harbor arrives on the mountain to personally deliver a medal awarded to Curt, things get off to a rocky start when bigots start picking on him due to his heritage. While there, Mary Ellen helps him work through his anger and the pair become close. Meanwhile, Corabeth crosses paths with an old beau who is preparing to go overseas with his Army unit.

John-Boy returns to Walton's Mountain, physically healthy but mentally tormented by the fact that he can't remember the plane crash he was in. The girlfriend of his drowned co-pilot visits him. Ike ignores his military draft notice and is arrested for evasion, until the authorities realize he is overage.

A former boyfriend and dance partner of Rose's comes to visit. Rose and Stanley Perkins resume their relationship, but the open road still calls out to Stanley. Meanwhile, Jeffrey has a new dog who is in the teething stage.

One thing after another goes wrong for John, who is swamped with orders at the mill. When the motor from the old power saw blows out, it becomes the "last straw," and he quits the lumber business. Jeffrey builds a racing cart for a school project and hopes Ike will bring the All-American Soap Box Derby to Walton's Mountain.

Grandma returns home and meets Rose. Miss Mamie refuses to have cataract surgery, so John and Mary Ellen move Grandma in with the Baldwins to convince them that surgery is the right thing to do. Elizabeth tries different ways to get a boy to ask her to a dance but ends up going with Drew.

Grandpa's cousin Zadok pays the family a visit to settle his affairs. At Camp Rockfish, Jason tries to break the ice with an officious female sergeant.

After an encounter with a GI, Ben is annoyed with what he feels to be preferential treatment in regards to being deferred in the draft to work at the mill. After getting into trouble with their respective families, Jeffrey and his friend Josh Foster get in trouble gambling. When Josh gets caught trying to steal their winnings out of Ike's store, Jeffrey starts to feel guilty when Josh has to deal with all the fallout.

Elizabeth makes friends with the new progressive school teacher, Ms. Lamphere, but then discovers she has a terminal illness. The teacher devotes a class session to childbirth over Corabeth's objections. Meanwhile, as the time nears for Cindy and Ben's baby to arrive, Ben waits it out drinking. Ben can't be found when Cindy goes into labor, so the Waltons escort her to the hospital, giving birth to their daughter Virginia.

Jason realizes the full horrors of war when his Jewish fellow soldier Ted Lapinsky reveals that his grandfather was killed in a Nazi extermination camp. Jason invites him to stay with the Walton family over the weekend. Meanwhile, Elizabeth must deal with being teased and called a "teacher's pet" when she earns straight A's on her report card.

Cindy follows a book's advice on how to be a good wife, but ends up exhausting herself. Serena and Jeffrey adopt a cat which has a litter of kittens.

When a German POW escapes from a nearby camp and hides out on Walton's Mountain, he befriends Jeffrey, and in turn helps the boy find the true meaning of Christmas. Corabeth's holiday pageant is cancelled.

Mary Ellen and Erin try to prove they can do anything as well as men, so they enter the 1st Annual Run and Ride Race in Rockfish and eagerly train with Elizabeth coaching for the race. Jeffrey gets a signed picture from a movie star.

Jim-Bob falls for an attractive older woman, the wife of an Air Corps pilot, and helps her do home repairs. After he gives her perfume, she realizes he has become obsessed and tells him they can only be friends. Then she learns her husband was KIA. Jim-Bob takes his first ride in a biplane. Serena works on scout merit badges, then wanders into the woods at night.

To be near John-Boy who is in a coma, Olivia joins the Red Cross. Rose plans the big Thanksgiving dinner. John and Olivia spend Thanksgiving in Richmond Hospital with John-Boy.

Olivia is shocked when she discovers the reason why Darcy Thatcher is no longer responding to her husband's letters. Corabeth receives a large inheritance, buys a luxury car, and talks of retiring. The Waltons receive news about John-Boy.

After experiencing combat, Ashley Longworth Jr. visits on leave and proposes that he and Erin marry immediately. But, she has difficulty adjusting to the loss of his faith and the changes in his behavior. Meanwhile, Serena becomes Elizabeth's shadow.

With John-Boy still MIA, the manuscript he wrote is waiting to be published, so John and Olivia must sign in his absence and they try to locate him through the Red Cross. The family dog Reckless, whom Jeffrey has become attached to, dies of old age while romping through the woods with him.

A film company comes to Walton's Mountain and the Pickett plant is used for a war time documentary. Erin is convinced by the director that she has potential in Hollywood. The Baldwins organize a party for soldiers at their home but are disappointed when no one comes, so Jason takes drastic action.

Olivia creates a daycare facility for the children whose mothers are working at J. D. Pickett's. Ike takes dancing lessons from Rose, but Corabeth suspects he is having an affair.

John discovers he never received his high school diploma because he enlisted for WWI before he graduated. The Army refuses to do business with him if he can't produce it, so he must take an equivalency exam. Mary Ellen takes over for the county nurse who has joined the army, and she must earn the trust of the skeptical backwoods people who refuse her help for their ill children.

Olivia's aunt Rose and her two mischievous grandchildren arrive at the Waltons. The children repeatedly cause trouble, including shoplifting, driving a car into a fence, and starting a brush fire. Ike and Jim-Bob build an air raid siren, which Jeffrey accidentally sets off.

John serves on the local draft board. A young soldier he drafted has been killed and the boy's distraught father threatens John and Jim-Bob. The family has its own feelings of loss when a telegram arrives stating John-Boy is MIA. Meanwhile, Erin tries to get a raise from J.D. Pickett.