A dispute over a bill causes tension between the Freeman and Hall families and inseparable friends Booker and David are pressured not to see each other anymore.
Luther becomes immersed in a home-study course in auto mechanics and David is preoccupied with a radio set creating a feeling of neglect for Booker T.
A child is hit by joyriders who drive off. Mentally challenged Bo finds the unconscious child and thinks she is sleeping and tries to wake her. Her parents think Bo attacked her and the town must decide if Bo should be institutionalized.
Guest star Morgan Freeman plays Mailman, a pitcher on a traveling black baseball team that's hustles a game against the white Palmerston team.
W. D. takes bets on the ballgame, but doesn't tell that the opponents are a professional team. Everyone wants Rifle Johnson (Scatman Crothers) to pitch. The game is played between The Black Travelers and the town's mixed team.
Booker T. and David are held hostage by convicts from a prison work gang. The boys fathers and Willie-Joe work on a plan to save them.
Grandma Jenny Freeman is honored by her church. She is extra happy when Luther gets his brother to come back home to be at the church service.
The husband of a woman that dies in childbirth blames midwife Bessie for her death.
Coralee takes the schoolteacher job over W.D. 's objections who doesn't believe wives should work outside the home. A frisky principal, an angry father and unruly students are some of the problems Coralee deals with.
Willy-Joe falls for Carrie, the daughter of his family's sworn enemy Jake Simms. After Carrie confides a secret to Willy-Joe, he sees a chance for them to be together as husband and wife.
Town gossip about Bessie's nightly visits to wealthy Rick Bragdon angers Luther, which makes him a suspect when the man is discovered shot dead.
A smooth-talking salesman makes romantic advances to W.D.'s sister, the Widder Brown, while working with government agents out to shut down her still and send her to jail.
Diana, Booker T., and David protect a young vagrant from being found by the townspeople after he and another hobo burglarized W.D.'s store looking for food.
Bessie's father comes home with stories of fighting in the Spanish American war with Teddy Roosevelt - and a claim on 40 acres owned by W.D.
Controversies arise when an old flame of W.D.'s arrives in Palmerstown as the new proprietor of a roadhouse. Working for her is a black piano player who teaches Diana to sing jazzy tunes - against the wishes of her father.
A Chinese family and the Influenza arrive in Palmerstown about the same time which makes the townsfolk think they are responsible for the outbreak.
W.D. learns of a quick rich scheme that involves land thought to be worthless. Despite cooler heads advising against the plan W. D. withdraws his family's savings on the risky investment.