At Christmas time, Meg Palmer, recently widowed and working job to job to support her kids, mistakes Crane's and Daniel's intentions when they try to help whenher car breaks down., and lashes out at them. She soon accepts the McFadden family's generosity as genuine, but faces the struggle of her life as her deceased husband's parents sue for custody of her three children.

Hannah""s impassioned protest and armed stand against the bulldozer demolition of the oldest building in Murphy, the original schoolhouse where her great-grandmother once taught, falls on deaf ears, even among the McFadden men. A factory is to be built in its place and jobs mean more to many of the families than presrving a bit of local history, even though the construction company gained the title by unscrupulous means. Meanwhile, Guthrie runs into a mini-scandal when hi frog, ""Loser"", is stolen just before the First Annual Carbon Coounty Frog-Jumping Derby. (Calaveras County, where this series is filmed, was the sire of Mark Twain's famous jumping-frog tale).