Things are looking bright for the Ingalls until a hailstorm destroys their crops. Charles must leave his family to look for work and, along with some other farmers, ends up working in a quarry. Meanwhile, Caroline convinces the women in Walnut Grove to band together to harvest by hand what remains of their crops.
Charles allows Laura adopts a baby raccoon, Jasper, until it grew bigger. After being caged, Jasper bites Laura and Jack, and runs away. When it returns to kill a chicken, Charles kills it and discovers it was rabid. Jack is tied-up and Laura is confined to bed until it can be determined whether they have rabies. It turns out that the raccoon Charles killed was not Jasper, and Laura and Jack are alright.
Caroline is pregnant and gives birth to a baby boy, Charles Ingalls Jr., who captures the attention of the family. Laura resents her baby brother because she believes she no longer has her Pa’s affection. When the baby becomes seriously ill and dies, Laura believes it to be her fault because she didn’t pray for her brother. After talking to Reverend Alden, Laura becomes determined to seek God and ask for a miracle. Blaming herself for her brother’s death, Laura runs away from home. She wants to become “closer” to God and climbs the nearest mountain. There she meets a friendly hermit, Jonathan, (Ernest Borgnine) who takes care of her and guides her in her spiritual journey. Charles and Mr. Edwards are desperately searching for Laura and find clues leading to the mountain. When Laura realizes her Pa has found her, she tries to run but the Jonathan stops her and tells her that God wants her to be with her Pa.
Harriet’s niece, Kate, visits Walnut Grove. She and Doc Baker spend time together and fall in love. Despite Doc Baker’s reservations about his age, he and Kate decide to get married. Unfortunately, Doc Baker realizes that his fall years should not impede on Kate’s spring, and, painfully, he lets her go.
The town determines how to handle an alcoholic father, John Stewart, who beats his son, Graham. Caroline takes in Graham while Charles stays with John and works him hard to help him stay sober. John is able to overcome his problem and realizes inner aspects about himself.
The Ingalls, on their way home from Mankato, have to seek shelter from a raging blizzard. Meanwhile, the Marshall from Sleepy Eye is looking for a Sioux Indian, Jack Lamehorse. The Indian saves Charles who fell and is hurt while hunting. They reach the log cabin where the Ingalls have sought refuge from the storm, and they find the Marshall who intends to kill the Indian. The Indian, with Charles’ help, escapes during the night, and Charles prevents the Marshall from killing him. The blizzard drags on and Charles realizes he will have to kill one of his horses for food, but the Indian returns with the deer Charles left in the snow when he was injured. The Marshall shoots the Indian, but regrets it after learning that the Indian was in fact going to save them all from starvation. When the Marshall’s aides reach the cabin at the end of the storm, the Marshall tells them the Indian is nowhere to be found and they all go their separate ways.
The Ingalls’ neighbor, the widow Julia Sanderson, learns that she is going to die. She asks Charles to make sure that her three children find a good home. Despite the solemn situation, Julia refuses to succumb to sadness and makes the most of the few days she has left. And when she dies, her last words to her children and friends are for them to remember her with joy not sadness. Charles has a difficult time finding a home for Julia Anderson’s three orphaned children. Reluctantly, he decides to separate them to different families. Mr. Edwards, who has been helping Grace Snider take care of the children in the interim, doesn’t want the children to suffer from being separated and realizes his own pain from being alone. He decides he doesn’t want to be alone any longer….he asks Grace to marry him and they adopt all three children.
John Sanderson, who was adopted by Mr and Mrs Edwards, is more of a poet than a farmer and is always lost in his books. Isaiah would like him to be different. He buys him a Winchester ’73 for his birthday. Unfortunately, John doesn’t like guns or hunting but doesn’t want to hurt Isaiah. He gives him a letter, explaining why he does not want to go hunting. Isaiah “reads” it but doesn’t react, leaving John thinking that he doesn’t love him and does not care about his feelings. While hunting, they run into a bear, but John freezes and doesn’t kill it. He runs home to get help, leaving Mr Edwards in a pool of blood. Afterwards, John feels guilty and is certain that Isaiah doesn’t love him because of his lack of reaction to the letter. But he finds out that Isiah cannot read, and thus did not understand what was written on the letter. He reads it to him, and they finally understand each others intentions, and John realizes he does love him very much.
When Charles’ mother dies, his father, Lansford Ingalls, loses the will to live. Charles brings his father back to Walnut Grove hoping it will do him some good. Spending time with his grandchildren helps Lansford recover. One day, Laura becomes angry with her grandfather after there is an accident with her horse, Bunny, He promised Laura Bunny would live and he was forced to put Bunny down when the injury was too bad. Feeling bad, Lansford leaves Walnut Grove. Realizing her anger was misplaced, Laura is able to find her grandfather and convinces him to return home with her..
When Laura and Mary receive the assignment to collect bugs for studying, Carrie wants to go with them. Mary becomes upset and yells at Carrie to stay on the log after Carrie lets out all of Mary’s bugs. Instead, Carrie chases a butterfly, and falls into an old mine’s air shaft. Meanwhile, Mr. Hanson refuses to hire an ex-miner Mr. Laudy because of his addiction to alcohol and the fact that he had married Mr. Hanson’s daughter against his will. The whole town pitches in to help get Carrie out of the shaft, but it is Mr. Laudy that actually finds Carrie before the whole mine caves in, showing Mr. Hanson that he should be forgiven.
Joseph Stokes, also known as Spotted Eagle, the son of a Sioux Indian father and a white mother, moves to Walnut Grove with his widowed mother to live with his grandfather, Jeremy. Jeremy is ashamed that his daughter willingly married an Indian and treats Joseph with contempt. At school, Joseph is harassed by the bullies. It is not until Joseph shows courage under adversity when beaten up by the bullies does Jeremy stand up for him and accept Spotted Eagle as his grandson.
Mary needs an immediate operation, so Charles leaves the farm to take a high paying job in explosives. Charles risks his own life, and the lives of his crew by rushing a tunnel dynamiting job.
Slavery has just been abolished by the Civil War, but many, both white and black people are still sticking to their old ways. Solomon Henry is a black boy of eleven who decides that he is sick of being a Negro. He wants to be white and go to school. Solomon runs away, and starts living with the Ingalls family. He teaches the family about slavery and also teaches Laura not to take things for granted. Solomon ends up being proud of his family and goes back to work on his families farm.
One hot day after school, Laura and Mary invite one of their friends, Ellen, to go swimming. While playing hide and seek from the boys, Ellen is swept under the water by the current, and she drowns. Laura feels very guilty, so one afternoon, she decides to take flowers to Ellen’s mother Eloise. Eloise has been in denial about the whole death and she thinks that Laura is Ellen, so she takes her in and locks her in the basement for days, pretending that Laura is Ellen, such as making her call her “ma”. It is not until Eloise goes to the store to buy a birthday present for “Ellen” that Laura is found, and Eloise starts to realize the death.
As Charles is working on the addition to the house he is called away to make an emergency delivery to Mancato, causing him to leave the house with a hole. Caroline hires an attractive young gentleman Chris Nelson to finish the house. Mary becomes suspicious of the gentleman when she finds him wearing Charles shirt, and when she sees him grab her ma. The grab was actually to keep Caroline from falling in the water. Mary and Caroline have a huge fight and the mess is straightened out. Chris leaves when he realizes the trouble he has caused, but Mary tells him to stay. By the time Charles returns they are great friends.
The Ingalls family travels to a nearby town for the annual fair. An exhausted Carrie decides to nap in the basket of a hot-air balloon, which is set free to the sky by Mary’s spiteful suitor.
An American Indian boy arrives in Walnut Grove seeking medical attention for his ill father. When the townspeople become hostile, Charles helps the small band of peaceful Indians escape.
Mary takes a teaching position in a backwoods community, but find the leader of the community, Miss Peal, against her and her teaching. Miss Peal cannot read, which is why she resents the children of the community learning to read, as Miss Peal will not be able to have the same control over them.
Charles takes Mary to a specialist when her eyesight starts to get worse, and the Ingalls suffer when Mary goes permanently blind. Mary becomes increasingly bitter because of her frustration over her blindness. Charles enrolls Mary into a school for the blind in Iowa, hopeful that it will help her. Mary is reluctant to stay, but ends up changing her mind when she meets her new teacher, Adam Kendall. Mary and Adam fall in love and make plans to meet in Winoka where they both will be teaching at the new school for the blind.
The Ingalls, Oleson’s, and Garvey’s decide to return to Walnut Grove from Winoka, with the Ingalls taking the orphan Albert Quinn with them to live with their family in Walnut Grove.
The children of the blind school give the Ingalls a lucky horseshoe for them to hang over their door when they return home to bring them luck and to remember them by.
However, when the Ingalls, Garveys and Olesons arrive in Walnut Grove, their longtime home, they are in for a shock when they discover the state of their beloved town.
When the families arrive in Walnut Grove, they are shocked to discover that Lars Hansen, the founder of the town, has suffered a stroke and has allowed Walnut Grove to become run down. The returning families decide to help restore the town and contact the families on the surrounding farms of their restoration plans.
Laura is jealous when Charles spends all his time helping Albert, his adopted son, about how to raise a newborn calf. When Albert overhears Charles and Caroline discussing Laura’s jealousy, he decides to run away. When Laura shows he calf at the fair and she winds first place, she reveals that she owes the honor to her “brother” Albert, who was the one who prepared the calf for the show. Albert is secretly watching from behind a gate, and Charles sees him and chases him down. Charles convinces Albert that the family loves him and everything works out.
Albert Ingalls learns a painful lesson about prejudice when he becomes the apprentice of 80-year-old Isaac Singerman, the only Jew in Walnut Grove. Though young Albert is branded a “Jew-lover” and beaten up by local boys,he refuses to turn his back on the old woodcarver, who teaches him the value of pride and tradition.
Two men need money so they sell lamb cheaply to the residents of Walnut Grove, knowing that it might be infected with anthrax. Charles and Jonathan Garvey go out to get the medicine but a man holds them up while they are returning and steals the wagon. Charles and Jonathan follow him to his house and convince the crazed man and his wife to let them have the medicine. Many of the infected die, including the men who sold the lamb meat to the town. But all the main characters are saved with the timely arrival of the medicine.
Albert falls in-love with Sylvia, a girl from school. When she is raped, her father becomes shamed and keeps it a secret. When Albert finds out Sylvia is pregnant, he thinks she has doesn’t love him. Later, he learns the truth about her pregnancy and vows to take care of her and her baby despite her father who has become very protective and suspecting. Albert’s love, Sylvia, is troubled when her father has become cold and distant because he thinks she has shamed him. She runs away but is found by Albert. Seeing her unhappiness at home, he promises run away with her. When Albert goes into town for supplies, he unknowingly reveals her location to the rapist who then goes after her. The rapist is stopped but not before Sylvia is fatally injured.
Charles has to go to Walnut Grove to suggest that the farmers could share their crops, and as he doesn´t want to leave Albert in Burr Oak, he comes with him. On the way to Walnut Grove, they visit the university where Albert is planning to study. They realize that the price is very high, but Albert searches a scholarship. Back in Walnut Grove, Albert meets an old friend, Michele, and they seem to be fond of each other. Michele tells that she will go to the same university as Albert, and everything seem to be good.
But Albert doesn´t feel really well. He tries to hide it, but his nose often bleeds, and finally, he collapses. Dr.Baker sends him to a hospital, where the doctors tell that he is very sick. Albert decides to return to Walnut Grove and spend his last days there. He tries to live as normally as possible, but Laura is very worried about him in the beginning. Charles speaks about his suggestion, but the farmers are not positive at all. Albert stands up and tells what he thinks, and when they hear that he is sick, suddenly Charles suggestion is good(hmmm….). In the end, Albert and Laura follow the school pupils to a mountain with a place of memories. The story comes to end on the top of the mountain.
The people of Walnut Grove learn that their town is built on someone’s legal property and are asked to leave. Despite trying to fight the claim, they are ordered by the law to vacate the town. Before they leave, the town structures are torched and destroy so the new property owner would not make use of the town’s hard work.
