Charles and Albert accompany Alvin and Sarah Cooper, as well as their son and daughter, on a wagon trip through the country. However, tragedy strikes when the parents try to ride their wagon down a steep grade and the horses start bounding out of control. The wheel brake to their wagon, which they failed to check, is worn entirely through, and snaps off. Then, the wagon comes unhitched from the team and heads for the edge of a very long fall. Left with no choice, Alvin tries to drag Sarah out of the wagon so they can jump to safety, but Sarah panics and refuses to jump, a decision which costs both parents their lives. The wagon crashes to the bottom of the hills, and becomes the coffin for the once-hopeful couple, their dreams dashed... along with them.
Now orphaned, little James and Cassandra have watched their parents die before their young eyes and be buried on the trail. James is able to handle the loss and be the strong one, but little Cassandra has been rendered mute and takes a long time to overcome this state of post-traumatic stress. Their unmarried uncle was awaiting the whole family's arrival to take the edge off living on his own, but this sad and cruel twist of fate is not something Uncle Jed can handle because taking care of himself, let alone two small children, is a hard and difficult task in his advanced age. Charles must now find someone to take care of these two kids and raise them, because his home is too small to accommodate two extra mouths to feed. Sadly, as Albert professes and is later proven correct, there isn't much of a place for children who are orphaned and in the system.
After attempting to get James and Cassandra situated elsewhere, the two seem to find a home, only to find it's mostly a picky and selfish family. The Tompkinses, who lost their daughter to sickness, want only Cassandra, and James is reluctantly taken on. Because the Tompkinses can't afford the presence of two children, James becomes unwelcome and treated like a slave forced to earn his keep. After an abusive and jealous brother frames him for stealing money just so his stern father will whip James, who is too small to fight back and can only sit back and take his lashings with a belt, James and Cassandra run away.
When Mr. and Mrs. Tompkins come to the Ingalls asking for help in finding James and Cassandra, Mr. Tompkins says a little bit too much, raising Charles' suspicions that things are not as happy as the Tompkinses led them to believe. In the end, after finding the children, Charles and Caroline ask whom they'd rather stay with. The answer is an easy one: The Ingallses, and in turn rejecting the Tompkinses.
Charles and Caroline agree it's going to be very crowded and a struggle, but they realize this is a challenge they must accept in order to give James and Cassandra the proper, loving home they deserve.
Tropes associated with this episode:
- Abusive Parents: James and Cassandra's temporary guardians, the Tompkinses — or more so, the patriarch of the family.
- Cousin Oliver: James and Cassandra. By now, some fans thought that — given the inclusion of Albert a few years earlier — the original premise of Little House on the Prairie was straying too far off course, and the addition of the Cooper children gave them more evidence.
- Cute Mute: Temporarily for Cassandra, who is so traumatized by witnessing her parents' deaths she won't talk about it.
- Put on a Bus: Jonathan and Andy Garvey make their final appearances.
- Tonight, Someone Dies: Alvin and Sarah Cooper, in a wagon accident.
- Too Dumb to Live: Sarah Cooper, James and Cassandra's mother, who doesn't even try to jump out of the out-of-control wagon and also actively resists her husband trying to pull her out and jump together. Naturally, this leads to the wagon speeding up to the point where it's almost impossible for them to jump out and not die, and both parents can do nothing but hold hands as the wagon careens down the hill, killing them both. If she had jumped with her husband when he wanted them to, it's very likely both of them would've lived.
- Would Hurt a Child: Mr. Tompkins doesn't think twice about brutally whipping James as punishment for stealing (though not shown, he can be heard crying out in pain as a horrified Cassandra looks on).
- You Talk Too Much!: Mr. Tompkins, when he goes to the Ingalls searching for James and Cassandra, says rather nonchalantly that he plans to teach them a lesson when they get home, thinking the Ingalls share his values. Mr. Tompkins anticipated incorrectly, and in the end it costs his family the chance at adopting the two orphans.
