A troubled girl who had a fling out of wedlock gives birth to a child in secret, and has to abandon the baby in a basket downstream before her father (an unreasonable menace who drove his wife away with his fanatical abuse of the Bible) discovers the scandal. Gradually, Laura discovers clues that lead her to discover this love child, joined by Charles. They work to solve the mystery of the wayward child and the reason why the young mother abandoned the baby.
Tropes associated with this episode:
- Damsel in Distress: Anna Mears, who is locked away in a secluded cabin at a location unknown to anyone who has ever heard of her with no means of communication with the outside world, pregnant out of wedlock in the 1870s, and must keep her pregnancy and delivery a secret from the person who lives with her in said cabin. She actually pulls it all off, plus manages to summon outside help.
- Message in a Bottle: Anna leaves messages on bottles while she's trapped by her father inside a cabin.
- My Secret Pregnancy: Anna was able to hide her belly from her father for months, despite living alone with him by wearing loose nightgowns and leaving her belly strategically out of sight. She also gives birth when he's away and he doesn't figure it out until after the baby is with the Ingalls.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted. The Ingalls family rescues and begins to raise a foundling baby, whom Laura names Grace before they find the baby's parents and return her to them. Nobody seems to recall this event when Ma gives birth and names her own baby Grace just a few episodes later.
- Properly Paranoid: Played with. Anna Mears' father is so paranoid about his daughter fooling around that he keeps her isolated in a secluded cabin, but it turns out that she did have a child out of wedlock. However, it's implied that his overbearing and controlling treatment of his daughter, which already drove his wife away, was what led her to break the rules and seek comfort with her boyfriend, culminating in her pregnancy.
- Save the Villain: After her father starts a fire at their shack and tries to force her to stay there so they can die without anyone knowing about her "sin", Anna manages to knock him down, causing him to lose consciousness, but still drags him out of the fire instead of letting him die in there. He's not too grateful about it and doubles down on how now everyone will know about their sin.
- Scenery Porn: The episode is full of extended sequences showing gorgeous takes of landscapes and woods.
- Teen Pregnancy: The whole special revolves around an unsanctimonious birth from a teen girl who had a sexual relationship with her teen male lover.
- Troll: Charles trolls Mrs. Oleson when he and Laura visit the Mercantile with Baby Grace, to whom Laura became so attached she all but wants to adopt her. Harriet asks whose child she is, Charles says "She's Laura's. She won't even let Caroline take care of her", briefly letting Harriet believe Laura (who's in her early teens by this point) had that baby out of wedlock.
