The Greatest Little Western Show on Earth trundles into Mt. Thomas and Jo and Jack are sent to ward off pickpockets reported to be operating in the audience. They arrive to find the show's ringmaster, Sandy Rivers, challenging anyone to a whip-cracking competition. From the crowd emerges a handsome, rugged stranger who beats Sandy squarely at his own game and demands the $500 prize money. Sandy's show has seen better days, however, and with no prize money forthcoming the contest ends in fisticuffs. Down at the station, Sandy promises to pay the winner back once the ticket sales trickle in. Jo is intrigued by the stranger, who is reluctant to give his name and appears to have no family or fixed address. Like the stranger, Jo feels displaced in Mt. Thomas, where country folk welcome city slickers with folded arms. She takes it upon herself to settle him in, whether he likes it or not. Jack worries that Jo has misjudged the wanderer when Sandy Rivers is found bashed and Jo's gypsy c