While scouting in Wyoming territory, Duke is forced by outlaw Tom Tuesday to act as his guide to an important rendezvous in Ruby City, Idaho. Tuesday is going blind from a gunshot wound, and Duke is able to turn the tables on him.

The wagon train comes across old Jamison Hershey and Herman, his 3000 pound Belgian horse. The old man has made it safely through hostile Indian territory because the tribes are so in awe of his horse. Hershey and Herman are invited to ride with the train, though it becomes apparent that Herman is not able to travel very fast and may hold back the entire group.

Bill and Major Adams plan on going hunting with a friend but when he is not home they suspect a renegade party of Cheyenne who have broken the peace treaty and the wagon train may be their next target.

John Gillman being chased and shot in the leg by a posse escapes via a river. He is found downriver nearly passes out by a young orphan girl Abigail. She takes a liking to him but he tries to rebuff her. However, events cause a change.

Mary Ellen is an orphan traveling west to join family, but members of the train reject her due to her surly disposition. Her only friend is Sally Mayhew, another girl traveling west with her family dying of consumption.

Ella Lindstrom loses her husband on the wagon train ride west from Boston. With her seven children she decides to stay the course against the wishes of Major Adams. It gets more complicated when she thinks she is expecting number eight.

Ever since he was young, Tom Tuckett has been sent to good schools and looked after by an unknown benefactor. When he joins the wagon train he feels he's about to find out who that is but it isn't who he imagined.

Flint meets Chris Hale alone on the prairie. Hale has just found his entire family massacred by Indians, and Flint asks him to join the wagon train. However, the company that owns the wagon train has hired a new wagonmaster, Jud Benedict. Benedict is a ruthless and brutal tyrant who puts time above all other considerations, and does not care how many people are left behind or even die in the process of heading to the final destination as soon as possible. He has also hired unscrupulous gunmen to enforce this goal by brutalizing slower people, or anyone who stands up to him. It is revealed that Hale has also been a wagonmaster, but has retired from the job and does not ever want such a responsibility again. Still, people on the train are looking to Hale to stand up to Benedict.

Chris and Cooper along with a British journalist accompany civilians surveying for the Army when they come across an Army troop that has been massacred except for two survivors. This opens the journalist's eyes to the real America.

Major Adams allows two stowaways, Tobias Jones and his young friend Midge, to stay with the train. But Tobias is in trouble due to his drinking, and things get worse when he's accused of murder.

During a storm, Flint takes shelter at a farmhouse. He soon discovers the husband is refusing his wife the care of a midwife and before it's too late for her he needs to find out why.

When a big snow halts the train, several of the men disappear mysteriously with no trace of them to be found. After Flint, Major Adams, and Hawks go missing, it's up to Chuck Wooster to lead the train to safety.

The Major finds an old man in the desert and takes him to the wagon train. He doesn't remember his name but when he's recognized by one of the other passengers, he remembers not just his name but the faith he thought he lost as well.

One dry water hole is normal but when the wagon train has two, Flint and Ben Burns lead a party to find a legend that only the Indians speak of, Shining Water. Troubles await them but the worst may be a too green city boy.

Her father on his deathbed, Christine Elliot decides to fulfill his dream of a boys school and joins the wagon train. A good start: the eleven boys he already has. One man is determined to stop her unless he collects his pound of flesh.

When the wagon train passes through town, habitually drunk Jeremy Dow finds that his past has caught up with him. His choices: continue running, or face the demons from his past when he is confronted with this wife and son on the train.

Looking forward to some time off, Flint heads towards the town of Monument but runs into an old man and some kids whose parents were just massacred by some Mescaleros and they're running low on supplies especially milk for the baby.

The Santee family---Will, his mother, and his younger sister---join the wagon train under a false surname. They have been forced out of town after town because of a terrible thing a family member did. They confide in Hale, Hawks, and Charlie, who agree to keep their secret from the others on the train. But it soon comes out anyway, and things get complicated when Will falls for a young woman from the wagon train.

Bill meets young Barnaby West, who claims he is traveling west to see his father, a famous frontiersman. Bill invites him to join the wagon train. But he and the others wonder just how much, if any, of young Barnaby's story is really true.

Barnaby and Charlie talk Chris Hale into hiring legendary mountain man Zebedee Titus as a scout. The nearly 80 year old Zeb's failing eyesight leads to problems including Coop's being captured by the Comanche Zeb couldn't see.

A little girl, crying each night, appears to be a ghost from The Donner Party. Many people hear her, but she appears each night to Charlie, who questions his own sanity.

While out looking for water Coop and Charlie are stopped by a gang of five, including two women, who are on the run after robbing a bank and killing three lawmen. The leader of the gang shoots Charlie after tying him up, and they take Coop to lead them through a mountain pass to get to California.

Saul Bevins, a blind doctor traveling with his son, his sister, and his dog, asks to join the wagon train. Many others on the train object that he will slow them down, but Hale agrees to let him ride at least until the next settlement, at which time the entire wagon train will vote on whether he should continue. On the way Bevins is forced to overcome many obstacles.

Clementine Jones is in the process of being thrown out of a town when a bank robbery occurs. One of the fugitives ends up joining the wagon train on the same wagon as one of the bank robbers is trying to escape on.

Madame Delphine Sagittarius asks to be picked by the wagon train at Beaver City. The town is expelling her as a con woman. Charlie is initially against it but when no one else on the train accepts her, he becomes her lone supporter.