Upset that Dan refuses to recind a 10 p.m. curfew he's put on all the saloons in town, the three saloon owners draw straws to see who gets the 'short straw'. That man is the one who is supposed to kill Marshall Troop. Instead, he hires a killer whom Dan knows and recognizes in the cafe. The rest of the show is spent trying to figure out who he's there to kill - and who paid him to do it.

While going to arrest two men for murder, Dan is mauled by a bear. A woman saves him and takes him to her cabin, but he doesn't know she's the sister of one of the wanted men. She nurses him, even though she knows he's a lawman because of his badge, which she saw and threw away. Then her brother and his partner come back, and emotions run high. In the end, the situation is resolved, though not as Dan would have liked.

Reformed gunfighter Kurt Monroe comes into Laramie to meet his fiancee, Lucy, on the stage. But when the stage comes in without her, his resolve to stay on the straight and narrow is put to the test.

The Hayes gang is riding into Laramie, and one of the riders, Clay, is coming in to warn Dan. In a rare show of Dan's background, we learn Clay is his brother, that they both loved the same girl who went off with Clay and then died, and that Clay is not exactly a law-abiding citizen. But he still wants his brother and Johnny to win this fight against the gang, so he gets out of a sickbed to help when no one in the town will.

Three young toughs cause trouble for Johnny while he's left in charge while Dan goes out of town. Finally, he's forced into a shoot out with all three of them, just as Dan gets back.

When stage robbers kill Loma Williams' brother, she becomes a one-woman vigilante force. After one of the men tells her where she can find the other one, she kills him. Then she heads for Laramie, the place where she was told she could find the other one. Dan tries to head off a bloodbath.

Dan and Johnny must stop an assassination attempt on the Senator, who is supposed to stop in Laramie on the midnight train.

When an army officer comes to Laramie to try to establish an unfair treaty with the Indians, a white man who has been assimilated into the tribe tries to kill him.

Once again Johnny resigns, after being forced to kill an old friend. Dan hires another deputy, but he's no Johnny McKay. He is bombastic and cowardly, pushing people to throw his weight around, but not really wanting to have to fight. Finally, after the new deputy gets scared half to death, Johnny takes his job back.

Pa Jutes and his sons hold Lily Merrill and a young newsboy hostage in the marshall's office until the 9:05 train to North Platte comes through. It's carrying another of his sons who's being taken to justice by another lawman, and Pa wants to make a 'trade'.

Bill Jennings and his fiancee', Amie, are about to be married. But then Bill's stepson, Gabe, shows up, full of anger and vengeance over the fact that Bill deserted his mother and him years before. Even though Bill knows that in truth, his ex-wife left him - and Gabe is not really his son- he tries to protect the boy from the facts.

An older man comes to town to avenge his son's killing by Dan Troop. Although Dan was doing his duty, the father hears a local bigmouth talking about how his son was just a fun-loving boy and Dan Troop killed him without cause. In this episode, it's Johnny who has to come to the rescue as the man is determined to kill Dan.

Artist Frederick Jameson comes to town. Lily impresses him and he offers to paint her portrait. Meanwhile, a murderous gang is on his trail, and he and his Indian companion both seem to know why, although Dan and Johnny do not.

Lily is threatened in an alley at night by a man calling himself ""the ugly man"". He seems to know all about her and accuses her of deceit and lies (although she is sure she doesn't know him) and he promises to kill her at midnight on some night soon. Dan and Johnny begin a constant vigil, one or the other being with her 24 hours a day until they can track down a man with no name and no face. Finally, one of the girls who works in the saloon discloses a secret that unlocks the mystery.

In this angsty, nearly depressing episode, Johnny falls in love with a young girl in town, Jenny Miles. Dan and Lily have some objections, but they don't say anything. Jenny turns out to be a flirt who is in love with someone else, and Johnny keeps protecting her from him thinking he's trying to hurt her. She's trying to get one of them to kill the other to prove how much they care about her.

A deputy who wants to make a name for himself is trying to find an old friend of Dan's, accusing him of a crime that he himself committed. Dan, once again, has to step in to right the wrong.