David Watkins, a civil war photographer arrives in Colorado Springs. Dr. Mike diagnoses David's diabetes and is frustrated that he refuses treatment and will ultimately go blind. David suggests taking a portrait of the town and an argument ensues over who will be in it. When the camera equipment is destroyed, the whole town must pull together to create a camera and take the photo before David's eyesight fails. At the same time, Mrs. Bing, Horace's mother, is brought to town, seriously ill. Mrs. Bing disapproves of Myra until she learns how much they love each other, and on her deathbed bestows her blessing on their marriage.

When teen-outlaw Belle Starr robs the saloon, Mike takes her in, intending to reform her; Colleen overcomes her fear of riding. Belle Starr: Melissa Clayton.

A paleontologist arrives in town, igniting ""bone fever"" among the townsfolk when he announces that dinosaur bones are worth money. Meanwhile, Matthew and Colleen try to prevent Brian from discovering that the ""dinosaur"" bone given him by his pa is fake.

With no child-protection laws, and influenced by Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, Mike has a girl removed from her ""guardian"" by taking the man to court and trying him for animal abuse. Mary Ann: Doren Fein.

Matthew's sudden announcement that he wants to marry Ingrid causes upheaval in his relationship with Dr. Mike, who feels he's too young. In an effort to prove he's man enough to make his own decisions, he convinces Sully and Cloud Dancing to allow him to partake in a four-day Cheyenne ritual. This is the final straw for Dr. Mike, and she confronts Sully before she storms off looking for Matthew. Meanwhile, Ingrid suffers asthma attacks, and her treatment is undermined by Dr. Mike's disapproval of their marriage plans. Dr. Mike comes upon Matthew going through the rite of passage and seeming at peace with himself, so she lets him finish uninterrupted. Later, Dr. Mike and Matthew resolve their differences, with him deciding to delay the wedding and her giving Matthew her engagement ring for Ingrid.

Catherine, a beautiful blond woman captured by and raised with renegade Indians, is brought to Colorado Springs by soldiers when her tribe, which includes her husband, is wiped out, leaving her the sole survivor. She initially earns the townsfolks' sympathy, then their contempt when she rejects their gestures of kindness, doesn't know the language, and falls down into an epileptic fit. Indeed, her Indian name was ""Shivering Deer"" thanks to her grand mal epileptic seizures. Mike takes her in, but the only members of the family she trusts and feels comfortable with, especially with her faltering English, are Sully, then Brian. Brian, however, becomes decidedly less enamored of her when he accidentally glimpses Catherine kissing Sully. Later, when Brian confronts Sully, he doesn't understand Sully's distinction between ""being kissed"" and ""kissing someone,"" and troubled, tells Mike about it. Meanwhile, Jake, in a conversation with Loren and Dorothy about what marauding Indians do to white

Eight orphans arrive on the train. The Reverend takes them in at the church and Mike nurses their ailments. When no one in the town wants to adopt the orphans, the Reverend extends a proposal of marriage to Mike so that they can raise the orphans together. Mike briefly considers the offer, and Sully confronts her about it, asking her if she loves him. She accuses him of not making any kind of committment to her, whereas the Reverend has, to which he replies, ""If marriage is all you want...."" leaving his meaning clear without being spoken that he's possibly willing to offer more. Considering this, Mike turns the Reverend down, much to the relief of Sully and the Cooper kids. Eventually, the orphans board the train and leave town, but each orphan boards the train a more complete person as a result of their interaction with the townsfolk. Dr. Mike confronts the fact that she can't save the world and she and the Cooper kids emerge as a more united family.

The appearance of renowned singer Gilda St. Clair (Barbara Mandrell) tempts Colleen to leave college and travel the world instead.

A ragtag circus, consisting only of Heart and Atlantis, a mother-and-daughter team, arrives in Colorado Springs. Heart, the mother, enlists the townsfolk to participate as performers. Everyone accepts but Mike, whom Heart tries to engage as a trapeze performer. Later, in the homestead, Colleen reveals her fear of being in the limelight, and Brian asks Sully if he'll perform on the trapeze, per Heart's request. Sully says to Mike, ""I will, if you will,"" upon which Mike says she'll perform if Colleen will. Colleen reluctantly accepts the challenge. Heart engages the Reverend to be a magician, with Miss Dorothy as his lovely magician's assistant. Brian and Loren are the designated clowns. Colleen, Atlantis and Matthew do a tightrope act together, and Jake is pressed into service as the ring announcer. The town happily embraces their various roles in the circus, but friction occurs between Mike and Heart when Mike discovers that Atlantis, Heart's daughter, has webbed fingers. Mike wants to

A troop of black cavalry soldiers ride into town intending to cover themselves in glory by eradicating hostile Dog Soldiers who've been attacking the railroad. Mike commits an act of civil disobedience by tipping off the Indians, which results in carnage on both sides and the defeat of the Buffalo soldiers. She's accused of treason, and jailed, but the arrogant black cavalry leader, Sergeant Zachary Carver, manages to exonerate her when he's made to realize, through the combined efforts of Sully and Mike, that his beloved troops are nothing more than pawns in the U.S. Army's policy of genocide against the Indians. Returning the favor, Mike manages to medically fake the Sargeant's death, and he escapes court martial. Meanwhile, Colleen cheats on a test and by doing so manages to win a school trip to Washington. Mike must then explain the concept of ""good lying;"" that is, civil disobedience for a principle, and ""bad lying,"" that is, Colleen's self-serving actions regarding the test. In t

An elderly man comes to town with hopes that the natural spring will help his rheumatism. Dr. Mike can't convince Sully to plan for the Halloween festivities.

A bitter Loren, who blames Sully for his daughter's death, tries to repossess Dr. Mike's cabin when he learns he still owns the deed.

When several townspeople come down with mercury poisoning, Dr. Mike forces a reluctant Sully to guide her to the high mountain stream which may be the source of the problem. The trek is difficult for her, but she ultimately earns Sully's respect and gratitude after saving his life twice despite a broken wrist. Just as they confirm that the water is being polluted by a local mine owner whose mining process is dumping mercury into the stream, they are captured by his men. In the interim, worried townsfolk send out an inept posse to try to locate Sully and Dr. Mike. Olive backs Grace's new venture -- Grace's Cafe. In the end, Dr. Mike saves the day by curing the mine owner's son, who has fallen victim to the poisoned water, and convincing the owner to close the mine.

Dr. Mike tries to heal the soul of Doc Eli, a Civil War surgeon turned patent medicine show huckster, who's come to like the taste of his own medicine, an all-curing elixir used by the fabled Kickapoo Indians. She doesn't trust the sales pitch of this exploitave medicine show man, especially when she's facing a real medical crisis involving Myra. She must help Doc Eli face his past demons, before he can help her remove an ovarian cyst from Myra, in a technique he pioneered. Meanwhile Sully's on a similar mission in trying to convince Franklin, a disillusioned Cheyenne, survivor of a massacre, to join his own people in their continuing fight for survival. Myra and Horace get engaged.

Dr. Mike takes in Red McCall, a down-and-out cowboy, and his ailing half-breed infant child. McCall reaches the end of his rope trying to care for his baby, so after robbing Loren's store, he leaves the baby in Michaela's care, sensing she could find a suitable home for his child. Dr. Mike's attempts to find a home for the baby prove futile. When she travels to a remote cabin to check on the health of it's owner, she finds him badly mangled from a bear attack. Her horse is frightened off by the bear, and she's marooned in the cabin until Sully shows up looking for her. They narrowly escape being the rabid bear's next victims. After returning to town, Dr. Mike decides she'd rather raise the child herself than turn him over to an orphanage. However, Sully locates Red and convinces him to keep the child.

After a patient of Dr. Mike's dies of blood poisoning, she accuses Jake, the barber, of infecting the man with his dirty razor. Her accusation throws Jake into an alcoholic binge. Dr. Mike tries in vain to pull him out of it, but finally realizes he must be the one to want to stop drinking. She gives him something to live for by pointing out his many friends in town, including her. Meanwhile, Mike's children try to help her deal with her loneliness on her 35th birthday by conspiring to find her a proper suitor before her surprise party

Halloween is trick-or-treat for the residents of Colorado Springs when Sully's dead wife, Abigail, haunts Dr. Mike, after Sully suggests fixing up the homestead for her. Eventually, Mike is able to lay Abigail's ghost to rest. Meanwhile, Brian becomes terrified after his investigations lead him to believe Dorothy is a witch. But, later she helps him deal with his sadness about the fading memory of his mother. Jake and Loren's prank on the town backfires when Jake pronounces a man dead and his ""corpse"" walks away -- Mike later diagnoses the man as a catalepsy sufferer.

Love finds visiting faith healer Sister Ruth, in the form of Kid Cole, who's revisiting the town in order to jail a desperado he's apprehended. The desperado's two brothers have followed him to town and stalk him. Kid Cole, strangely fatalistic, seems to have lost the will to live. Things come to a head when Mike and Sister Ruth must unite their mutual strengths; medicine and faith, to save Kid Cole's life. Mike performs an emergency procedure to evacuate the tubercular Kid Cole's lungs; Sister Ruth helps him find the will to live. Sully forces Kid Cole to reveal that Kid Cole feels terribly guilty for having gunned down the desperado's brother, who was unarmed. Sully helps the Kid resolve this crisis of conscience and in a climactic showdown, the town helps the Kid avert a gun battle with the desperados. Meanwhile, the Reverend refuses to allow Robert E and Grace to marry in the town church, but eventually capitulates to their demands, with some help from Mike and Sister Ruth.

Colleen and Becky become best friends when, at Bray's store, Alice, another friend, insists on taking Colleen's favorite fabric to make a dress for the Sweethearts' dance. Dorothy fears she may be pregnant when she faints in the general store. Mike assures her she is not, but she is beginning the ""change of life"". Later, Mike is frustrated when she tries to teach Sully to dance the Sweethearts' reel. Mike confides to Dorothy her fears about a physical relationship and Dorothy guesses Mike is a virgin. Meanwhile, Becky asks her new best friend, Colleen to ask Richard, a boy she likes, if he likes Becky. He asks Colleen if ""the girl,"" (he thinks it's Colleen) will meet him at the kissing tree. Colleen misunderstands, thinks he knows it's Becky. She tells Becky where to meet him, but Becky chickens out and Colleen goes in her place, to explain. Richard, assuming Colleen is there to meet him, kisses her. Becky finds out and is heartbroken. Becky and Alice team up against Colleen and spread

When Julius Hoffman rides into town and engages Matthew in a poker game, Matthew thinks he's found a great way to earn money to finish he and Ingrid's homestead, although Mike and Sully disapprove. At first, Matthew wins steadily, though he and Ingrid get into a terrible fight when, after missing an elaborate dinner she cooked for him (he was in a game), he confesses he used her hard-earned laundry money, which she gave him for building supplies, as a stake. Though Ingrid and Mike disapprove heartily, Matthew continues playing the game, even after he gets beaten up and robbed of his earnings. Eventually, townsfolk become so confident in Matthew's abilities that everyone but Mike, Sully and the Reverend back Matthew in the big poker game. The Reverend pulls Mike aside and confesses that he was once a gambler, knew Julius, and suspects that the town's been set up. As Matthew makes his way to the big game, Ingrid breaks up with him over his poker playing. In the process, she returns the e

Mike and Jake go head-to-head when both campaign for the Mayorship of Colorado Springs. At issue: whether drinking and prostitution should be outlawed. Myra finally breaks loose from Hank.

Mike intervenes in their behalf when a Jewish peddler family arrives in town and is met with prejudice and harassment from townsfolk. Also, Matthew masquerades as Santa Claus for Brian. Guest star: Trisha Yearwood

As Colorado Springs prepares for Christmas, the family receives a rambunctious toy poodle from Mike's mother in Boston, and Brian has a case of puppy love for a new girl in town. The Rev. Johnson recruits folk for a Nativity pageant. Sara Sheehan: Jann Michaels. Mrs. Sheehan: Susanna Thompson.

An old friend of Sully's visits, wanting to financially help the family. Although he falls in love with Michaela.

Sully and Michaela are on their way home for Christmas, when they stop to help a couple inexperienced in the wilderness.