Amelia, a new girl that Laura meets in school, is ashamed of her very overweight father. Her father works at the blind school where Mary works. All the blind students like him a lot. They claim that they can see his love. One day, Laura and some other students from school, start making fun of the overweight person, not knowing that they were making fun of Amelia's father. Amelia's father pretends to leave town since his girl is so ashamed of him. He hides out at the blind school. When he is involved in an accident, Amelia reveals to her dad how much she loves him.

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.

Nels is kidnapped by two crooks. The crooks try to get Mrs. Oleson to pay ransom for her husband, but she refuses to. This makes Mr. Oleson upset and causes him to help the crooks. The kidnappers aren't very lucky. After kidnapping several different people, the crooks decide that they need to try another line of work. They leave without hurting any of the kidnapped people.

The Wilders' budding marriage is put to its first major test when Almonzo, soon after recovering from an illness, is felled by a stroke.

Harriet finds a bearer bond from Walnut Grove. She uses this to try to get people to follow her suggestions. She tells the town council that if she doesn't get her way, she will cash in the bond which would force the town to pay Mrs. Oleson over $10,000.

A tiny circus performer, Lou, decides to look for work in Walnut Grove after his wife dies while giving birth to his baby girl. A prejudice Mrs. Oleson uses her power to make sure that the dwarf doesn't find work. She even threatens Mr. Anderson that she would close her account at the bank if he hired Lou. To keep the infant alive, the dwarf must steal food. Mrs. Oleson decides to press charges when she finds out who stole the food. When Nancy falls in a well, Lou risks his life to save the girl. That's when Mrs. Oleson decides that being small has its advantages and decides to drop all charges.