
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.

Little Joe falls for a girl who has been disowned by her people because they think she is a witch and, therefore, an outcast.

Adam is taken hostage by a band of U.S. Army prisoners who have escaped and sought refuge on the Ponderosa.

A member of a powerful gang murders a shopkeeper; the deputized Cartwrights sentence a murderer to hang at dawn when the leader of the gang kidnaps Ben and holds him hostage.

A wanderer seeking his parents' lynchers, arrives in Virginia City as Ben and Adam are convicted of murder.