Stopping with Jaimie in a dusty old town, Linc meets up with his old flame Maria, whom he had thought was dead. She is now married to a bitter enemy of his, one of three crooked brothers who control the town. Linc also learns that in his last gun battle with him, he cost Maria's husband his right arm, for which he is determined to exact revenge.
After the wagon train stops an attack on an old European and his nephew, Jaimie is then taken by men who have mistaken him for the boy, who is apparently really a prince who they hope to trade for a very valuable chest.
Jaimie finds a baby Arapaho boy near the body of his dead mother, one of many slaughtered by an Army contingent. In spite of Linc's warning that bringing the baby on the wagon train will further aggravate the tribe which is seeking revenge, Jaimie hides him in a wagon. A bigoted member of the train demands that the baby be taken back and left to the elements, but his own wife feels otherwise.
In a light episode, Jaimie relates the story of the time he worked to save a strong, simple-minded young man from a hanging by finding the real perpetrator of the attempted murder.
When Jaimie stops Piggy Trewblood from hanging himself, he doesn't realize the mess that it all leads to. Piggy hopes to buy back his wife, Zoe Pigalle, who he gambled away for 700 dollars. But his efforts to do this land himself, Linc, and Doc in jail, and Jaimie being held as ransom for the money.
Doc and Jaimie find a diary in an old wrecked stagecoach, which gives apparent instructions about how to find the way out of the dry valley in which the wagon train is trapped with Linc way overdue to return. Then Jaimie decides to go looking for the mysterious robed figure that is occasionally seen up on the hill. Jaimie, and Doc following after him, discover an amazing secret.
Jaimie and Linc come across a bounty hunter and his prisoner, a mountain man who he is bringing in to hang. The mountain man talks Jaimie into releasing him with a tall tale of a fortune in gold over the hill.
A traveling fortune teller plans to pass off Jaimie as the long-missing son of a couple who is offering a large reward for his return. To do this, he convinces Jaimie that he is destined to accidentally kill his own father unless he comes away with him and participates in the fraud.
The boss of a river town refuses to let the wagon train use his ferry service unless Doc can cure his wife, who has been mentally disturbed since the death of her son.
After escaping from the Pawnees, Jaimie is again captured by Murrel. Meanwhile, the wagon train is held up when a passenger is mauled by a rabid wolf, giving Doc some time to try and find his son.
Jaimie is captured by the Pawnee. Murrel and Shep come across the band and devise a scheme to sell Jaimie back to his father.
Jaimie finds a man with a bullet wound, and the wagon takes him in, though he is still being hunted by the bandits who shot him.
Jaimie and a young girl befriend a big, simple-minded man named Angus, who is traveling alone with his sister. Unfortunately Angus, though gentle with children and animals, has a problem controlling his temper and does not know his own strength.
Coulter meets some old acquaintances from his past, who try to use an old secret to weaken his leadership of the wagon train when the threat of Indian attack compels him to make difficult demands of the other passengers.
When Jaimie finds an old Indian staked out and left for dead, Doc insists on bringing him in and trying to save his life, though Coulter warns him that interfering with tribal custom by doing so could put the lives of everyone on the wagon train at risk.
A girl runs away from a band of buffalo skinners and seeks shelter with the wagon train. The ruthless leader of the skinners demands her return, but Coulter refuses. Then an old nemesis of Doc and Jaimie comes upon the skinners' camp and offers to get the girl for them---and hopes to get his revenge in the process.
The wagon train finds an entire Army regiment wiped out by Indians, except for a wounded young lieutenant, and Coulter wonders how he alone was able to survive the attack.
Special guest star James Whitmore plays Foxy Smith, a swindler (with a heart of gold) holed up in a cave hiding from Indians who want his scalp. Jaimie offers to help him.
The Beaver Company stops at Whiskey springs during a July Fourth celebration, and Jenny receives her first marriage proposal from a young stranger.
This episode concerns a gun-happy youth who kills an Indian woman.