
Ben Cartwright is the patriarch of an all-male Nevada ranching family. Set during and after the Civil War, "Bonanza" is the story of life on the family's thousand-acre spread, known as the Ponderosa, near Virginia City. Ben has his three sons, each with a different (and deceased) mother. Serious eldest son Adam hopes to follow in his father's footsteps; middle son Hoss is a gentle giant -- physically strong, but sometimes naive; and youngest son Little Joe is the most impetuous and romantic of the offspring.
A wanderer seeking his parents' lynchers, arrives in Virginia City as Ben and Adam are convicted of murder.
Attacked by Shoshones while crossing a burial ground, Adam discovers that the Indian woman tending him is white.
A Ponderosa ranch hand faces charges of killing the wife of the U.S. marshal who came to arrest him.
Two British socialites find that they still have a lot to learn when they visit their friends, the Cartwrights.