The school's new teacher is Ms. Wilder. Laura falls in love with Ms. Wilder's brother Almanzo. Laura is crushed when Nellie invites Almanzo over for dinner. Laura gets even with Nellie by volunteering to cook dinner for them. Laura adds some hot spices to the chicken and since Nellie had said that she had cooked the meal, Almanzo stays away from Nellie.

When Laura and Nellie get in a fight about the graduation test, Almanzo separates them and takes Laura home with him. When Charles finds out that Almanzo took Laura home with him, Charles goes to Almanzo's place and punches Almanzo because he fears his daughter was being taken advantage of. Laura yells at the fighting pair and tells them that she is no longer a child.

Each student must trace their family tree for a school assignment. Albert is unsure how he can do the assignment. The Ingalls decide to legally adopt Albert, but run into problems when Mr. Quinn, Albert's father shows up. He wants Albert until he sees him. Albert pretends to be blind with the hope that his father wouldn't want him. The blindness does the trick. Albert is legally adopted by the Ingalls.

Adam wins a prestigious award. Laura and Albert give the Christmas money they had made from collecting honey, to Adam and Mary to go on a trip to receive the award. The stagecoach is involved in a very serious accident.

A circus comes to Walnut Grove. Everybody is helping set up, except Nels Oleson. His long, lost sister is in the circus. Only Mrs. Oleson believes her husband's story about his sister. Nels is nominated to be the announcer at the circus. When he announces his sister, he says, "My sister, Annabelle." These words lead to Nels and Annabella becoming very close siblings.

Mrs. Craig is in love with Reverend Alden. Although Mrs. Oleson tries to stop Reverend Alden from marrying Mrs. Craig, the wedding goes on as planned.

Albert's imagination starts to get the better of him when he dreams that he and Laura are taken by Indians.

After an accident where a tree falls on him, Mr. Edwards is injured and can't walk properly and feels like he is only half a man. Charles and Laura visit him, where Mr. Edwards seems to come out of his dark mood at seeing Laura. Charles, Mr. Edwards and Laura go on a hunting trip, where Mr. Edwards has deadly intent on his mind. Charles then resorts to a serious tactic to help his friend.

Jonathan is tricked into believing that he is a good wrestler. Jimmy Hart tricks Jonathan into believing this just to make money off of Jonathan. The local region is betting heavily including many residents of Walnut Grove who stand to lose a lot of money. Mrs. Oleson is betting heavily too, with the church funds, which she is treasurer for. Milo has to prove to Jonathan that he has been set up. In the end, Jonathan has Milo (the wrestler he beat in round one), take his place in the wrestling ring.

A preacher who works as a faith healer establishes a congregation in Walnut Grove, taking parishioners from Rev. Alden's church. But things grow deadly serious when a teen-age boy dies from a ruptured appendix after being healed from the pain.

Caroline's mother dies while traveling on a train heading for Walnut Grove. Caroline's father takes to the sod house for a while. Albert is the one that convinces him to go fishing with him. Caroline's father tells great stories of the children growing up in the Big Woods. Mr. Ingalls convinces Caroline's father to write down the stories. The Ingalls work hard to save up enough money to get the book published. Caroline's father leaves knowing that he is a published author.

The telephone comes to Walnut Grove, and Mrs. Olesen is hired as the switchboard operator. She takes advantage of her responsibilities to engage in her favorite pastime: gathering gossip. It will have a very damaging effect on the Garveys' marriage when she learns about Alice's hidden past.

Todd was a boy who got beaten up by his drunk father. Now Todd is 17 and is visiting his grandparents in Walnut Grove. Todd quickly gets into trouble. Charles puts Todd in jail when his watch is stolen. Todd is forced to work on Mr. Ingalls' farm. This causes Todd to learn to become a nicer person.

Walnut Grove has a school bully, Bart. Albert and Laura want to teach the bully a lesson. Albert dresses up as a werewolf, but the bully doesn't buy it when Carrie comes out and tells Albert and Laura that she'll tell Ma that all of the glue was used by them. Laura and Albert come up with another plan. But in the end, it takes the joint efforts of the school children to get the bully to be nice.

Mr. and Mrs. Ingalls travel to a farmers convention. They want to meet up with some of their old friends. Charles tries to convince the small farmers to stand up to the larger farms. Caroline is ready to go home when she finds out that several of her friends are unhappy with the way their lives have turned out. The Ingalls are more than happy to go back home.

Some escaped convicts take refuge at the blind school during a stormy night. Laura and Mary are held captives there. One of the convicts tells Laura to go get a doctor. Laura goes and gets her Pa. Pretending to be the doctor, Charles is able to disarm the convicts.

A deaf boy learns how to communicate with people when Laura teaches him sign language. The boy falls in love with her.

Albert's careless disposal of smoking materials in the basement of the School for the Blind causes a fire that kills Alice and his nephew, Adam Jr. Albert, Mary and Jonathan all have trouble dealing with the events and the resulting grief.

Albert, Mary and Jonathan - all deeply impacted by the fire at the School For the Blind - continue to deal with their emotions. Charles helps Jonathan realize that his alcoholism has taken a toll on his son, Andy, while Mary snaps out of her shock when she hears the melody of the music box Albert had purchased for her as a gift. But Mary's initial panic soon becomes Albert's when he finally understands his carelessness caused the fire that killed her baby and best friend's mother. Albert runs away, leading Charles and a reformed Jonathan to frantically search for the lad.

Almanzo's younger brother arrives, and Charles hopes Laura might fall for someone closer to her age.

Nels finally gets fed up with his wife and starts his own mobile merchant business. At a boarding house in another town, he meets a lovely young woman ... and nearly gives into temptation when he almost has an affair with her.

Laura gets the opportunity to be a temporary teacher for a nearby town. Almanzo drives her to the school. Laura realizes in this episode that Almanzo also has feelings for her. Their romance steps up another degree in this episode.

Almanzo asks for Laura's hand in marriage. Mr. Ingalls tells Almanzo to wait until Laura was eighteen. Not wanting to wait, Almanzo forces Laura to choose him or respect her father. Laura respects her father's wishes. Almanzo leaves town and causes Laura a lot of heartache. Harriet hires Percival Dalton to help her in the restaurant. Nellie and Percival fall in love and eventually Percival asks Nellie to marry him. Adam's father dies, which means that a new blind school wouldn't be built in Walnut Grove.

Laura helps Adam and Mary set up a new blind school in Sleepy Eye to try to get her mind off of Almanzo. Almanzo gets very sick.