Kate runs a stagecoach line spur. She sends her teen-aged grandson, Andy, to Gus Riley to pay off a debt. Instead, Andy robs and kills Gus, then heads for Dodge with the money, hoping to marry a saloon girl there who considers him just a boy. Matt gets on Andy's trail; the boy spots and shoots him, takes his badge, and leaves him for dead. But the stagecoach riders find Matt and bring him to his grandmother Kate's house for mending. Written by DrDOS

Ken Curtis, who will return later in the season as Festus, appears here as Kyle Kelly, a love-'em-and-leave-'em cowboy. As the episode opens, he leaves brokenhearted a girl who had expected a marriage proposal from him. He arrives in Dodge and soon takes up with the bored wife of a homesteader. Though there's no sign that Kelly has killed before, he and the wife make plans to get rid of her husband. Meanwhile, Kelly walks into the Long Branch and improbably encounters the girl he most recently left behind, now in Dodge and employed as a saloon gal. He gets into a fight over her and is humiliated. Next day he rides out to get his revenge on the man who bettered him; then he and the homesteader's wife hatch a plan to pin the killing on her husband. Written by Morganalee

Race Fallon, an aging outlaw and famous gunman, has just been released from prison. He meets up with Britt, a young tough who recognizes him as the idol of his youth. Race wants only to hang up his gun forever and tend the ranch of his sweet old Aunt Jen. Britt is reluctant to believe that Race is through with his old life, as he hungers for the excitement of being an outlaw, but is so dazzled by Race that he begs to accompany him to his Aunt Jen's ranch even if he isn't going to be joining him in exciting crimes, and Race reluctantly agrees. However, thanks to Britt, word gets around that Race is free again, and two of his old partners in crime come to his aunt's ranch, insistent that Race pull off another caper with them. Written by Morganalee

Hard-luck Tobe, who's lost his farm, gets a job in town with Chester's help and takes up with a saloon gal, not knowing she's on the run from a beau who's a con man and a killer.

Bespectacled and slight of frame, Elmo Sippy looks like a schoolteacher, but he's a cowboy who likes to gamble. When he arrives in Dodge and loses money to a gambler he knows will kill if he's not paid, Elmo ducks out of the Long Branch and steals the money from the till of the general store. It's his first foray into dishonesty, and he's elated to find it was easy--so much easier than being a cowpoke. When a little later he finds it necessary to use violence to get the money he wants, he discovers that killing is easy, too. Soon, the slight man on whom a gun belt looks absurd is a one-man crime wave, killing for the apparent joy of it. Written by Morganalee

A despondent widower goes to work on a farm for two sisters, each of whom finds him fascinating in her own way.

Quint is hired to escort a family on the first leg of their journey to Oregon. On the way, he learns the reason for their going, a motive that could have repercussions for Quint.

Billy Hargis runs into Joe Stark on the trail and shares the chicken Joe stole for dinner. When Billy catches Joe about to sneak off in the night with Billy's horse, he teaches Joe a lesson with his fists. Meeting up with Billy later in Dodge, Joe decides to spread a rumor that Billy is a famous gunfighter, knowing that such a tale is sure to prompt someone in town to challenge Billy to draw his gun. Written by DrDOS

On his way to Larned, Matt, feverish, spends the night at an abandoned shack. When he wakes up after losing a day, a recently released convict who swore to kill Matt, is himself found against a wall, dead, unarmed, shot twice, and the murder weapon appears to belong to the marshal. Written by DrDOS

Matt hears that Charlie Hacker, wanted for mail holdup and murder, lives in Texas. Wanting to help out the widow with a reward, he goes to arrest him but enters Mexico where extradition proves difficult when he is jailed for his own safety. Written by DrDOS

Matt tries to work with a Mexican officer to return a robber and killer to the U.S. Charlie Hacker does his best to escape and keep the reward on his head from being collected by anyone, especially Matt Dillon. Complicating matters are some bandits know about the reward too and they're closing in. Written by DrDOS

Jeremiah Dark and his daughter are from a hundred nowheres and heading to the same, wanting to bring a little happiness to those he meets. Accused of cheating at cards and then roughed up, he doesn't identify those responsible and Matt is afraid he might take the law into his own hands. Written by DrDOS

Itinerant and shiftless Pa Hack is the worthless father of three grown, ragged children. He bullies his two sons into stealing for their meager pot. When he stops by the Willis farm to beg some flour and coffee to supplement the chickens one of his boys stole, Pa Hack covets the Willis land and decides to use his ragged daughter as bait for the owner's son in order to get himself a piece of that land. Trouble is, the Willises have taken in a young woman who may get in the way. As he salivates over the land he's come to see as his by right, Pa Hack doesn't hesitate to use violence to get what he wants. Written by Morganalee

Jack Dakota wants to hang up his Wild West Show guns and just settle down in Dodge with an ex-girlfriend, twenty years past. When an out of work cowboy wants to earn a reputation as a fast gun, Matt may need to step in to keep the peace on his streets. Written by DrDOS

It's a test of wills when Quint witnesses a murder and the father of one of the prime suspects lowers Quint into a well to try to force him to promise his silence.

Festus returns to Dodge from wolfing and is hired by the Cattleman's Association to hunt down the wolves killing everyone's cattle. What he finds is that what's been doing the preying may wind him up in prison if he doesn't get Matt's help. Written by DrDOS

A man rides into town with a badly beaten stranger in tow. Matt finds out he was a friend who befriended him ten years ago under similar circumstances and rides to the town he calls home when he hears he was killed shortly after Doc sent the stranger on his way. Written by DrDOS

Festus, playing a poker game at the Long Branch, loses to a traveling salesman. When he turns up dead and robbed, they suspect a close friend of his as evidence, found at the scene, doesn't help nor do their remarks as they were leaving: about robbing him. Written by DrDOS

The Ginnis family, not from any town, live on the prairie and are used to getting their own way. When one son gets hurt, they ride to town to get help. That was just their first brush with the folks of Dodge but proves not to be their last.

Festus married? At least that's what their fathers imagined it should be when she was born and after she growed up. When Mayblossom comes to Dodge to fulfill that promise, Festus has to figure out what he can do to marry her off as her fitting in appears to be a lot more work than he expected. Written by DrDOS

Wayne Kelby shoots up the saloon, killing one man and wounding Quint. When Matt returns to town he goes after him and puts the word out. When he's arrested in Tascosa, Matt brings him back but on the return trip, an accident knocks them both out and when they come to they both claim the other is the prisoner. Written by DrDOS

Festus finds a little girl out on the prairie. He learns she saw her mother get killed by a stranger. When he takes her to Dodge, Matt hears she was hiding when this happened but can identify this man who may already be in town.

After some horsing around, Festus breaks some of Quint's equipment. To repair or get anew, they travel to Wichita and meet a saloon girl who tells them she needs to get away from town but her jealous boyfriend is now hot on their trail.

A new in the business saloon girl spurns a rancher from Dodge. She quits, rides to Dodge, meets and marries a local rancher. When she arrives at his home, she meets his uncle -- the man she spurned in Wichita who still thinks he can make her his. Written by DrDOS

Festus, returning to Dodge after doing some trapping, sees his girl, April, and they argue over a gift she received. Running off, she hides but her perch gives her a bird's eye view of a murder, one no one believes she witnessed but the killers. Written by DrDOS

Caleb, not happy with his life as a dirt farmer, wants to count for something. Trying to tell Matt that he admires him for his accomplishments, he's away escorting a prisoner to be hanged whose brother has vowed to kill him when he returns. Written by DrDOS

Owney Tupper's only child was born when he and his wife were already middle-aged. Now that his wife is dead, Owney and the child are very content alone, but the girl's prosperous aunt and uncle come to town and impress a judge with the life they can offer her, as compared to Owney, whose house is falling down around him. Owney can get his girl back, he's told, when he can demonstrate that he can provide for her properly. All Owney's attempts thereafter to make money are thwarted, until a job comes up that no one else in Dodge wants: that of the first in-town hangman (a judge wants the execution carried out there instead of Hays City, as an example to the populace). Written by Morganalee

Ned Wright was tried and acquitted of murdering Bently, but Ned and his wife have been outcasts ever since. When he falls ill, Ned tells Doc that he killed Bently after all, then dies. Chester, in his last appearance on the show, suspects that Ned was lying in hopes of somehow thereby making life better for his widow. As Chester sets himself to find Bently's real killer, the man who was Bently's best friend hires a man to kill Chester. Written by Morganalee

Stella Damon is new in Dodge and is looking to set up a saloon directly competing with Kitty. A whiskey drummer arrives who knows more about her history than she likes which worries her that the past may catch up sooner than she had wanted. Written by DrDOS

Henry Huckaby, a local farmer and fed up with a sore back and an empty belly leaves to seek his fortune in Dodge. After several failed ideas he hits on one that may make him rich but could also cost him his life.

Rob Scott considers himself a man who could stay or go when it came to women. He may have met his match though when a woman he desires and her husband take over an abandoned homestead and they come to where he works to look over some stock. Written by DrDOS

A traveling salesman meets up with Bull Foot, an Indian who mainly sells vegetables. When goods are traded for a squaw, he is upset when she runs away and into the arms of Festus, whose mule she steals, only to return home awaiting sale to the next customer. Written by DrDOS

Orval returns from seven years in prison for killing his wife's lover, vowing to reclaim his house and business. Edna tries to goad her new husband and Orval's son into a plot to kill Orval; then her head is turned by a traveling salesman.

Identical twins Jay and Jess and local girl Nancy vowed in childhood that the three of them would always stay together. But now that all are grown, Nancy and Jess have quietly paired off. Someone is seen going into the twins' store one night, and Jess is found shot dead. While arguing that Matt is not doing enough to catch his brother's killer, Jay moves in on Nancy, telling her that he knows about the planned marriage and insisting that he now take the place of Jess in her life. Nancy is unsure. It appears that Jay and Jess may not have been at all alike, as Nancy is discovering, and Jay's father confesses to Matt that if one of his sons had to die, he wishes it had been Jay. Matters come to a head when a man, not knowing of the death of Jess, comes to the store looking for him, telling Jay he's negotiated a price for the piece of land in another state to which Jess had planned to move with Nancy. Written by Morganalee

Two brothers and a friend they met head to California to start a new life. Along the way they learn this friend may have different ideas when it comes to the strangers they meet and towns they pass through because Matt is now on their trail. Written by DrDOS