Bille Jo returns from Chicago with a visionary zeal for the women's liberation movement, and enlists her sisters in ""the cause.""

Uncle Joe shocks Kate by bringing home a buffalo! Kate tells him to take it back, but all sales were final. It's part of his scheme to dupe wealthy British sportsman Lord Harold Faversham into coming to "Shady Rest Hunting Lodge" to hunt wild buffalo. But, the buffalo is far from wild and the girls want to keep him as a pet. Another problem arises when Joe spooks the buffalo, who runs off, leaving Lord Faversham nothing to hunt for. Joe stalls Faversham for three days. The Lord is growing tired of Joe and threatens to sue, while the girl try to protect their new pet. Kate comes up with a way for Faversham to have all the hunting he wants.

The girls are trying to learn some Japanese to make Betty Jo's Japanese pen pal, Nobuko Takamura, feel at home for her visit. Nobuko has come to the US to attend college to improve her English so that she can teach it back in Japan. She would also like to learn American customs. Nobuko tells Joe that in Japan, the women do the yard work. Joe gets Nobuko to do his chores until Kate puts a stop to it. On a picnic, Nobuko can't help but serve Billie Jo and Bobbie Jo's boyfriends. Kate tells Nobuko that the men should be the ones helping the women. Nobuko catches on to that custom quite quickly.

Uncle Joe has formed the Hooterville Volunteer Fire Department Volunteer Band. The band is so bad that it is driving paying guests away from the hotel. Joe hoped to raise money with the band to form an actual Hooterville Volunteer Fire Department. An upset Joe tells Kate she should come up with a better way to raise the money. After asking for donations only raises $62, Kates decides they need professional help. Kate wants to contact Henry Phillips, who works for a company that manufacture fire equipment, and ask his help. Calling in an outsider irks Uncle Joe and he says he can get all the equipment they need for the $62 they have. Joe winds up buying a bunch of junk. Mr. Phillips arrives and after a plan gone wrong by Joe, Kate finds a way to have Mr. Phillips get them what they need. Another plan of Joe's goes wrong and the Hooterville train station winds up burning down.

The cheap refrigerator that Uncle Joe bought isn't working, so Kate sends him into Pixley to get some ice for the icebox. Floyd and Charley are having a fight over who is the boss of the Cannonball and then they have a fight over a missing apple. Because of this, Joe can't get to Pixley and Kate's food will spoil. Kate gets the two to patch things up, but then Joe says something and they start fighting again. Kate has Betty Jo bring in the analytical mind of Mr. Douglas to assist in convincing the two to make up, but that doesn't work. Joe uses the hand car to get some ice, while the Cannonball strike continues. Floyd and Charley make up, but once again Joe does something to break them up again. Kate finally comes up with a way to get the two to be friends again.

Business at the Shady Rest is worse than usual. Uncle Joe speaks to Sam about the Shady Rest and Drucker's Store jointly hosting a fishing derby on Lost Lake. Joe figures that they can advertise expensive prizes, such as a boat, outboard motor and fishing gear, and order the prizes on a 30-day layaway plan. Since Sam and Joe always catch the biggest fish on Lost Lake year after year, Joe figures one of the two of them will win the derby and they can return the prizes before the 30 days. In the meantime, the hotel will be filled up and Drucker's Store will be busy with new customers. Kate has no idea of the underlying scam when she agrees to the derby. The derby does bring in business to both the hotel and store. But it also brings in Rod Granger from the Riverside Chronicle, who seems able to out-fish Sam and Joe. Just when it looks as though Mr. Granger is going to win, Joe comes in with a bigger fish.

Shy Orrin Pike becomes a big man when an old deed indicates he is the legal owner of the entire Hooterville Valley.

Billie Jo tries to spread love through the valley with a new theory of sensitivity training.

Betty Jo is giving up baseball to devote her life to science. The family finds out that she has a crush on Roland Barrett, her new science teacher. Dog brings home a large animal bone which Betty Jo takes to Roland. Roland is very interested in the bone and would like to find out where Dog got it from. Dog brings home more and more bones and Roland believes they could be from a brontosaurus. The family starts to believe the bones are buried below the hotel. Kate is not thrilled when they start digging a hole in the lobby floor. Clarence McGill, curator for the Pixley museum, comes to the Shady Rest. It seems the museum has been closed for repairs. Clarence caught Dog sneaking in and stealing the bones from the baby brontosaurus skeleton.

Betty Jo wants to buy her friend Willie's motorized bicycle. Kate says she can if she is able to come up with the money. Betty Jo gets a babysitting job on the condition that Kate is around to supervise, to which Kate reluctantly agrees. Kate winds up doing most of the work. Now many other babysitting offers and many other babies come out of the woodwork. Unfortunately, the jobs are all for the same night and under the same condition of Kate supervising. With help from the family, they make it through the night. Willie says he'll trade his bike for the family dog, but Betty Jo refuses.

Bobbie Jo really likes a new book she is reading called "The Feminine Mistake". It talks about how women are denied their humanity by men by being forced into domestic lives rather than real careers. Bobbie Jo decides to look for a job so that she can gain an identity through her work. Her first attempts at jobs end in disaster. Sam let's Bobbie Jo write for the paper. Bobbie Jo writes an article about Dr. Craig that incorrectly portrays her as a snob, causing an uproar in the valley. A remorseful Bobbie Jo decides to leave town. It may take Janet using some reverse psychology to make Bobbie Jo fully understand her life in Hooterville. Bobbie Jo decides to stay, stating "I'm the only one left to give that woman's touch to the Shady Rest..." Meanwhile, Uncle Joe tries to build a motorized bicycle so that he doesn't have to pedal.

Betty Jo has arranged with Reverend Barton to hold Kathy Jo's christening this Sunday. Janet reminds Betty Jo and Steve that it is customary to have godparents stand up during the christening. They have only a few days to decide on who Kathy Jo's godparents will be. They also know that whoever they don't choose will be hurt and offended. Uncle Joe, Sam, Bert Smedley, Wendell and even Doc Stuart all compete to be chosen godfather. Janet is honored that Betty Jo and Steve ask her to be godmother. Betty Jo asks Janet to decide who will be godfather. Janet then asks the Reverend's advice. He comes up with the only choice that makes sense.

Uncle Joe tries to get rid of the pet chimp who is gradually wrecking the Shady Rest hotel.

Herby is depressed when he gets drafted, so the girls cheer him up by suggesting he could be an astronaut. Uncle Joe hears this and decides he needs to promote Herby's future political career to the whole town. When Herby gets a discharge for minor medical problems, Kate finds a way for him to save face with Billie Jo and the rest.

The Every Other Wednesday Afternoon Discussion Club, with its new member Lisa Douglas, is planning on holding a square dance as a high school benefit. The Bradley girls decide to try and get King Ring a Ding, the big rock 'n' roll star, to perform at the benefit instead. Who shows up unexpectedly at the hotel instead is Herbie Willits, who used to live in Hooterville and who Kate encouraged to become a singer. Kate wants Herbie to sing at the benefit. What Kate and girls don't realize is that Herbie is King Ring a Ding. When Herbie hears that no tickets have been sold mainly because he's the "headliner", he comes up with a plan. Uncle Joe has his own plan, not realizing what Herbie's plans actually are, and in the process almost ruins the benefit.

Kate is cleaning out the storage closet. She wants the family members to go through their belongings to see what can be thrown away. Uncle Joe thinks they should start an antiques business with the junk. Everyone is around to help except Betty Jo, who should have been on the afternoon Cannonball run from school. Floyd and Charlie tell Kate that they saw Betty Jo that morning. She was all made up and had a suitcase. It looked like she was about to run away to elope. Kate and the girls look for clues in Betty Jo's room. They find a notebook that leads them to believe that Betty Jo might be thinking of eloping with the new boy in town, Peter Latimer. Betty Jo is actually just coaching baseball to Peter were no one can see them. Kate visits Mrs. Latimer to tell her that their children have eloped. When Betty Jo and Peter come home, everyone finds out that they were worrying over nothing.

It seems that every night everyone has something to do except for Kate. Uncle Joe tells Kate that she needs to get out herself. The girls decide to try and find Kate an eligible bachelor. They first tell Kate that they're grown up now, she doesn't need to take care of them and she should go on a date. That direct approach doesn't work. Their next attempt fails as well. They then ask Mrs. Douglas for her advice. Mrs. Douglas suggests holding a lonely hearts club gathering at the hotel. Three desperate men show up at the hotel hoping to meet some women. Once she knows what is going on, Kate finds a way to get each of the men to leave

Steve's plane is still sitting damaged where it crashed near the railroad tracks by the hotel. Henry Sharp, from the finance company, comes by because Steve has missed a payment. Steve has barely enough money to repair the plane let alone make his regular payments. Trying to get Sharp to give Steve some time fail. Steve decides to cut corners in repairing the plane. Kate, the girls and Uncle Joe try to help him raise some money, which ends up not being easy. Sunday at church, Reverend Jones enjoyed Steve's singing so much, he starts a contribution drive. They raise enough money to fix the plane and Steve decides to stay in the valley.

Hank Thackery is the owner of the Shady Rests rival hotel, the Pixley House. He plans to set up a jitney service between Pixley and Hooterville as an alternative to the Cannonball. He bets Joe that he can be faster from Pixley to Hooterville than the Cannonball. The loser to act as the bellboy at the other's hotel for a month. Part of Joe's problem in winning is getting Wendell into racing mentality. Hank also convinces the county commissioner that the Cannonball's fate should depend on the outcome of the race. The Cannonball wins with some unexpected help. Hal Smith appears as Jug Gunderson

An unknown singer tries to smuggle an adorable Vietnamese orphan into the United States by bringing her to Hooterville.

Bobbie Jo attempts to soften up Billie's Jo's new boyfriend for marriage.

Selme Plout's scheme to snag a husband for her daughter almost forces Steve out of the crop-dusting business.

Steve's Uncle George visits the Shady Rest hotel and lives up to his repulation as a troublemaker.

Betty Jo Elliott starts a day nursery to augment the family income.

Betty Jo has her first crush on a boy named Orville Miggs. But the object of her affections is more interested in tinkering with cars than he is in romance. As such, all Orville sees in Betty Jo is a mechanic's expert assistant. Kate doesn't want to see Betty Jo get hurt. Kate thinks he will see her in a different and more romantic light if she wears a dress and becomes a bit more feminine. But nothing they try makes Orville really notice Betty Jo, and ultimately give her her much wanted first kiss. If the family is able to accomplish their task, will Betty Jo ultimately think it was worth it?