Ben and Adam are locked in jail, about to hung for a crime they didn't commit. Joe and Hoss must find out why the witnesses to the alleged crime have perjured themselves before the execution takes place. They receive help from an unexpected source, a drifter called Lassiter who is searching for the
After Joe kills a man in self-defense who tried to set fire to the Ponderosa to clear himself some land, he has to take his lively, feisty, wild, daughter home, and she, and her relatives, are now determined to kill Joe. Joe tries to stop a homesteader he finds starting a fire on the Ponderosa and
Little Joe comes upon a gypsy girl. Frightened, she runs and falls becoming unconscious. When she wakes, they discover that she believes she is bewitched and so do her people who banished her. Her birth under a dark star has fostered this belief. Little Joe, smitten, must rescue her from this belief
The Cartwrights try to disprove the validity of a Spanish land grant to stop the De La Cuesta family from seizing part of the Ponderosa and all of the Carson Valley settlers' homestead lands. The episode opens with a settler being evicted from his land by some Spanish vacqueros. When the couple ins
Lord and Lady Dunsford arrive at the Ponderosa to visit their old friend Ben. Adam finds himself the object of Lady Dunsford's attentions when she deems him to be a braver man than her husband. Adam then takes the couple on a hunting trip, where Lord Dunsford freezes while attempting to shoot a coug
A bank robber takes a job with the Cartwrights to prevent the sheriff from tracking down his accomplices. After John Pardo and his gang rob the Virginia City Bank, they go into hiding on the Ponderosa. One of Pardo's men, Sam Kirby, goes to the Cartwrights. The plan is for him to hire on as a ranch
Ranchers are being killed, cattle stolen, and retired U.S. Deputy Marshall Denver McKee leads various posses after the suspects but never seems to be able to find them. In the meantime, McKee seems to have plenty of money to take care of his gorgeous daughter back home from schooling in the East. A
Adam's life is saved by an enigmatic U. S. Marshal who has come to Virginia City to arrest a friend of the Cartwrights. Adam is rescued from an ambush by Gerald Eskith, a lawman who is on a mission to Virginia City. He's looking for Jackson Blaine, a friend of the Cartwrights, claiming he needs Bla
Adam, Hoss, and new friend Sam Board act as escorts for a wagon train of Quakers who are heading to California to purchase land for their settlement. While Adam falls for the group leader's daughter, Reginia, Board plots to rob the group of its life savings. A wagon train of Quakers from Ohio are p
The Cartwrights take young Billy Allen to the Ponderosa following the death of his mother. Hoss is the only one that is able to penetrate the boy's hostility and bitterness. As the two begin to get close, Billy's father Vance breaks out of prison and comes for the boy. A young boy named Billy Allen
When an Indian saves Ben Cartwright's life from a near fatal knife attack by another Indian, Ben later gives the Indian and his pregnant wife a strip of fertile farming land. Unfortunately the land is next to a very racist farmer and things turn deadly. Ben is ambushed on his own property by the so
Hoss falls prey to the wiles of a beautiful woman with a gambling addiction and refuses to believe she's only interested in his money in spite of Adam's proof to the contrary. Hoss and Little Joe travel to Sacramento to help the widow of an old friend of the Cartwrights. Hoss discovers that the wid
