Jealousy will permeate the Shady Rest Hotel. After he agrees to go to the turnabout dance with Bobbie Jo, Tommy Johnson has to back out due to another commitment. As Billie Jo and Steve recently had a fight and Billie Jo isn't speaking to him anymore, Bobbie Jo feels that Steve is fair game. Steve accepts Bobbie Jo's invitation. Tommy tells Bobbie Jo that he now can make it to the dance since the other commitment is no more. Since she already has a date with Steve, she now refuses Tommy. Feeling Tommy is now fair game, Betty Jo wants to ask him to the dance. Tommy says yes to Betty Jo's invitation. The problem with these pairings is that the girls are now jealous about each others boyfriends. Add to the mix Jerry Massett, a mechanic friend of Steve's from his air force days, who is visiting Hooterville. Jerry ends up asking a free Billie Jo to the dance, which makes Steve jealous. A storm helps the girls get together with their proper boyfriends.

There's a dance on Saturday. Billie Jo and Bobbie Jo will only accept a date from either Steve or Don, the new young doctor in the valley. Neither Steve or Don have asked anyone to the dance yet. Billie Jo believes she has the right of first choice being the oldest. Left out is Betty Jo, who feels she has the right to be included in the dating discussion. Not wanting to take it anymore, Betty Jo decides to strike out on her own by moving out and getting a job. Through a series of misunderstandings, Billie Jo and Bobbie Jo wind up going to the dance with Eb and Betty Jo shows up with Steve and Don. It's not long before the girls are paired off with the boys they should've been with all along.

Kate's first boyfriend, Walter O'Connor, who is now a major league baseball manager, is coming to stay at the Shady Rest. While Kate is excited to see Walter, she is still just as anxious and nervous about him actually asking her to marry him. Regardless of Walter's intentions, his being there makes Sam come to the realization that he too has feelings for Kate. Walter proposes to Kate, but she turns him down.

It's the Christmas season, and everyone's in a rush to decorate the Cannonball in preparation for their annual caroling and gift delivery runs. Their plans are placed into jeopardy with the arrival of Homer Bedloe. He says that what they are doing is against railroad policy and he won't allow it. Kate hopes that Bedloe will have some heart, and she tries to use her best Christmas spirit in treating Bedloe with kindness to change his mind. Only Norman Curtis, the President of the Railroad, may be able to make Bedloe change his mind.

While the girls are swimming in the water tower, a bi-plane flies overhead. The pilot, distracted by the beautiful girls he sees in the water tower, crashes the plane by the railroad tracks next to the hotel. The family manage to get the unconscious injured pilot up to the hotel. For all three girls, it's love at first sight. Each of the girls do whatever they can to gain Steve's favor while they nurse him back to health. Steve will do whatever he can to stay at the hotel as long as possible. Kate and the girls later learn that he is a crop duster. Uncle Joe believes Steve's a Russian spy. Steve tries to use Uncle Joe's belief to his advantage.

Kate Bradley tangles with Selma Plout when Selma tries to lure pilot Steve Elliott into marriage with her daughter, Henrietta. Selma tries to throw both money into Steve's crop dusting business and gourmet meals to entice Steve. Selma ramps up her fight one notch by moving herself and Henrietta into the hotel to be closer to Steve. Kate, knowing Billie Jo and Steve are officially dating, comes up with a plan. She enlists the help of Floyd and Charley to get Selma uninterested in Steve.

A crew is filming a commercial at Lost Lake. The commercial stars Prince Hamlet of Kronenberg von Auschwile III, a rather large and imposing but valuable dog. Mr. Morton, the film crew director, needs Steve to fly him immediately to make a connection to a flight to New York. Hamlet can't risk the flight in Steve's plane, so he has to stay at the Shady Rest under the care of Uncle Joe. With all the special treatment Uncle Joe and the girls give Hamlet, Dog feels like the forgotten family member. So, Dog runs off. Uncle Joe makes Hamlet track Dog's scent, but Hamlet gets away. Everyone comes to realization who is really the valuable dog, when Dog finds Hamlet.

Steve has been spending a lot of time with Betty Jo. He's giving her flying lessons and she's his grease monkey in the airplane's repairs and maintenance. Billie Jo becomes jealous of her younger sister. Billie Jo tries to be more like Betty Jo and be a grease monkey for Steve. While Betty Jo tries to act more grown up in an effort to be seen in a more feminine light. Neither Billie Jo or Betty Jo achieve what they wanted. Betty Jo in particular feels let down as she wanted to feel like a threat to Billie Jo. After Steve's attempts to make it up to Betty Jo while letting her down easily fail, Betty Jo decides to take drastic measures to get what she wants.

Steve receives a telegram from his old flying buddy, Max Donohue. Max wants Steve as a business partner up in Cascade Valley. Steve decides to not accept Max's offer. Kate suggests to Steve that Max join him in Hooterville, which Steve knows wouldn't work but doesn't say why. Without Steve's knowledge, Uncle Joe sends a reply telegram to Max, asking him to relocate to Hooterville to join the Carson-Elliott Enterprises. Max decides at least to investigate, which doesn't sit well with Max's business and personal partner Jack. Max arrives and turns out to be a woman. Max will need to get an agricultural flying license from the state capitol, which Billie Jo and the rest of the family misinterpret to mean a wedding license. There will be a wedding, but it will be Max and Jack.

An excited Billie Jo has a one week singing engagement in Omaha. The only problem is that it is one week away from Steve. So that he won't be lonely, Billie Jo asks her sisters to keep Steve company. Bobbie Jo and Betty Jo each ask him out on what they consider official dates. They each treat Steve like their own boyfriend, at the exclusion of their current beaus. Kate thinks she has the answer for a confused Steve, but that doesn't solve the problem about what she will tell Billie Jo when she comes back. When Billie Joe returns, she has some news for Kate that may solve the problem. Meanwhile, Uncle Joe is trying to install an electronic room service request system, much to Kate's chagrin.

Uncle Joe starts a Free Wedding and Honeymoon Contest to promote business for the Shady Rest Hotel. Out of all the entries, one stands out: that of Laura Bentley and Tony Allison, a young couple whose parents will not allow them to get married. However, when they arrive at the hotel, they are actually an elderly couple whose respective grown children objected to their marriage. Kate and the girls still want to give them the best wedding and honeymoon the hotel has ever seen. Laura's daughter Violet, and Tony's son Herbert, arrive just in time to stop the wedding. Kate tries a little reverse psychology to get the bride and groom back on track. Kate's ploy has an unintended consequence which threatens not only the wedding but Laura and Tony's relationship altogether. In the end, Laura and Tony get married along with Violet and Herbert. Note: This is the first one where Meredith MacRae plays Billie Jo.

Since she is now in junior college, Bobbie Jo thinks she's all grown up. She decides to go to an all night party with her friends. Kate refuses to let her go to the all-nighter, despite Bobbie Jo telling her that all the other mothers are letting their daughters go. Kate learns that none of the mothers want their daughters to stay out all night. Kate says Bobbie Jo can stay out until 01:30 and the Cannonball will be ready to pick the girls up at that time. Bobbie Jo and all the other girls plan to stay out all night anyway. Bobbie Jo and the girls decide to go home, but Kate has a surprise waiting for her and the others on the Cannonball.

It's almost time for the Almost Annual Charity Show, and everyone is looking forward to Steve and Billie Jo performing a duet together. Selma strong-arms Sam, the overseer of the show, into appointing her the show's committee chair, a job usually held by Kate. Selma wants a few changes to the performing roster, including Steve singing with Henrietta. A worse change is that Selma makes herself the headliner, she playing the part of a singing Cleopatra. When news spreads around the valley of Selma's starring role, ticket sales plummet. Kate sets up a money back guarantee scheme at least to get people to the auditorium. Selma gets a case of stage fright and the show goes on without her.

Kate sees Steve as a possible future son-in-law. She believes his life as a pilot is too dangerous and she would like to see him get a different job. When she learns that Steve has a journalism background, she convinces Sam to turn over the running of the Hooterville World Guardian to Steve. With no crop dusting work to be had in the valley, Steve accepts the offer. This move doesn't sit well with Uncle Joe, president of the Carson-Elliott crop dusting empire. Joe goes on a quest for crop dusting business from their valley neighbors. With no bugs infesting the crops, Joe manufactures some business with the help of some plastic bugs. Kate finds out and reprimands Joe, but things work out for Steve in the end.

Jeremiah Priddy, a temperance lecturer, is coming to the valley. Meanwhile, Betty Jo has a quiet little boy following her around, even back to the hotel. They learn his name is Clint and try to make sure he's OK until they find out who he belongs to. Eventually they find that his father is Mr. Priddy and that Clint has run away. It seems Mr. Priddy is less than a friendly or hospitable man. Mr. Priddy deals with his son much as he deals with anyone who drinks: unyielding. Kate has a change of heart about Mr. Priddy when she learns a little more about him. She uses this information to try and bring him and Clint closer together.

After Steve sends him several letters inviting him to Hooterville, his best friend Jeff Maxwell, an air force captain, finally decides to take Steve up on his offer. Steve told him about many of the great things in Hooterville like the fishing and the food. But Jeff is more interested in the Bradley sisters. After Jeff hits on Billie Jo, Steve tells him that Billie Jo is off limits since the two of them are going together. Jeff can't understand when after he hits on Bobbie Jo then Betty Jo, Steve tells him that both aren't his type. Steve gets Jeff a date with Henrietta Plout. The Bradley sisters decide to take matters into their own hands when it comes to Steve deciding with who they should or should not go out with.

Steve spends time individually with Billie Jo, Bobbie Jo and Betty Jo doing their favorite activities. Because of this, each girl believes that Steve has chosen her to be his girl. Meanwhile, Uncle Joe tries to talk Steve into starting Carson-Elliot Air Express. Steve has no intention on marrying anyone at this point in his life. Kate and Steve devise a plan to scare off each of the girls. But their plan almost backfires when it come to Billie Jo.

Young Doctor Craig announces that he's leaving the valley since there just isn't enough business for him and Doc Stuart. Kate thinks she's come up with a solution for him to stay. He should specialize in house calls for people who can't make it into the office. He enlists the help of Floyd and Charley, who wait for him as he makes his stops along the rail line. Homer Bedloe arrives to see what trouble he can stir up to shut down the Cannonball. Bedloe thinks he can use Doc Craig's new business as a reason to shut down the train, because it delays the schedule. Kate figures out what Bedloe is up to. But, she also figures out how to have the doctor treat his patients and still have the Cannonball arrive on time.

Homer Bedloe shows up unexpectedly. He's come to announce there will be a new general manager for the Cannonball, who will oversee the train's operations. That person is Uncle Joe. Uncle Joe begins to act like a tyrant in bossing around Charley and Floyd. Charley, Floyd and everyone in the valley are mad at Uncle Joe for his new operating rules. Charley and Floyd quit leaving Uncle Joe to operate the train on his own, which he doesn't know how do. That's exactly why Bedloe appointed Uncle Joe. Norman Curtis, President of the CF&W is arriving shortly to make an inspection. Kate gets Charley and Floyd to resume their jobs so that the train can look to be operating efficiently. They may have a problem in doing so after what Uncle Joe did to the train.

Pixley's Sheriff Crandall is going on a fishing vacation. Uncle Joe makes an arrangement with Sam, the valley's justice of the peace, to house kleptomaniac shoplifter Eustace Pockle at the hotel. Kate doesn't like the idea, but allows Eustace to stay. Unfortunately for Kate and the hotel guests, Uncle Joe treats the hotel more like a jail than a hotel. Kate and the girls treat Eustace more like a hotel guest than a prisoner. Eustace, on the other hand, treats the hotel like any other place: somewhere to snatch trinkets. Just as Sheriff Crandall announces his early return to pick-up Eustace, Eustace escapes from the Shady Rest. They hope to be able to find him before Sheriff Crandall makes it back.

Without telling anyone in the valley the reason why, Kate takes a trip to the big city. When she returns she tells everyone that she decided to sell the hotel and she went to the city to finalize the terms of the deal with the buyer, Mr. Holloway, a chain hotelier. The money from the sale will provide any opportunity the girls want. The valley residents are sad to see Kate and the girls leave, but the girls are initially happy about the news. But the girls all come to the realization that they still like calling the Shady Rest home, especially after Steve announces that he's staying regardless. Kate comes to understand what life in Hooterville and at the Shady Rest really means to them all. But she feels that she made a verbal agreement with Mr. Holloway that she ethically cannot back out of. Uncle Joe tries to use a little emotional blackmail to convince Kate not to sign to final papers.

Late one evening, Uncle Joe and Sam, following a lodge meeting, run across a mysterious fellow looking for lodging. He calls himself Dr. Isaac Newton and claims that he's a geophysicist. Because of his all-knowing behavior, and the mysterious occurrences that have happened that night, they start to believe he may be an alien from outer space. Floyd and Charley know that Dr. Newton is starting to make Kate nervous. Despite the secretive nature of their lodge, the men offer to hold their upcoming lodge meeting, where Uncle Joe is going through an important initiation process, at the hotel. They hope that this ensures that Kate and the girls feel safe from Dr. Newton. Goings-on during and after the initiation ceremony ultimately settle Kate's mind about Dr. Newton.

Kate's cousin Mae visits and tells everyone that with some backing from a wealthy banker, she plans on turning the Shady Rest into a health farm using a diet and exercise program called the "Mae Method Reducing Course". The only stipulation for the financing is that the banker's daughter, Agnes Bedford, has to lose fifteen pounds in two weeks using the method. However, Mae can't stay as she has to go back and deal with the banker, leaving Kate to work with Agnes. Uncle Joe is all for the idea until Kate tells him that he will be the male guinea pig of the Mae Method. Agnes, who loves her food, isn't the easiest person to convert to this new way of life. Kate, the girls and Uncle Joe's kindness towards Agnes doesn't help their cause. Mae returns with a new scheme for the hotel.

Charley and Floyd derail the Cannonball going around Deadman's Curve. They believe the reason for the derailment was that Floyd had removed too many of the railroad ties to stoke the engine. Uncle Joe calls the C&FW Railroad, who agree to pay the necessary $300 insurance deductible for the repairs. Homer Bedloe shows up and finds out that a railroad employee's negligence caused the accident which in turns means the insurance company will not pay. Kate comes up with a plan where she gets some valley residents to put up the money and become stockholders of the train. But the Hooterville residents, taking over operation of the Cannonball, demand so many changes that the train's crew decides to quit. Kate finds a way for everyone to get their money back and to have Charlie and Floyd back at their jobs.

The National Amateur Hour is screening for new talent, and are holding auditions through the valley's own radio Station K. The winning performer is to receive $200. Once Uncle Joe hears about the prize money, he thinks that Steve and Billie Jo should enter. Sydney Sparks, a talent agent who heard Steve and Billie Jo, wants to represent them if they win the contest. His plans are for them to go on the road as a nightclub act. The family has mixed emotions. They are happy for the potential new career, but sad to see Steve and Billie Jo possibly leave for good. Billie Jo wants to do it and sees no down side. Steve doesn't as he doesn't want to be continually on the road living out of a suitcase. Uncle Joe thinks he may have a way so that Steve and Billie Jo don't have to make the decision themselves.