Kimble, working as an apprentice sailmaker in Santa Barbara, California, falls in love with Karen, the daughter of his stern but compassionate boss Lars Christian. But earns scorn from Karen's jealous and overprotective brother Eric. When Lars suffers a heart attack his last wish on his deathbed is to implore Kimble to stay with Karen. Meanwhile, Gerard flies to nearby Los Angeles when he hears about the arrest of a one-armed man for armed robbery and lets the story hit the newspapers, hoping it will flush out Kimble.

After finding that the one-armed man is not the same man he saw fleeing his house the night of Helen's murder, Kimble flees from Los Angeles, bearly escaping Gerard's dragnet. Tired of running, Kimble hopes to lie low in Santa Barbara and finally confides with Karen his secret. But Gerard tracks Kimble to Santa Barbara from a single clue that Kimble leaves behind at the L.A. County Jail: a match with the word ""sails"" printed on it. When Kimble discovers that Gerard has arrived in town looking for him, with the assistance of Eric, Kimble and Karen flee by sailboat and hope to end the running by faking his and Karen's death in a sailboat accident during a storm at sea.

While working as a roller rink supervisor, Kimble is recognized by the horribly scared Joe Hallop, a former Korean War veteran whom blames Kimble for his condition. Apparently back in the Korean War, Kimble was nearly killed in an enemy grenade explosion in which Joe shielded Kimble and got his face disfigured in the process. Knocked out, Kimble never knew who saved his life. Joe then plots to lure Kimble into a remote area and kill him by using one of his war mememtos: a live grenade.

While working as a migrant worker in New Mexico, Kimble becomes an unwilling party to the kidnapping of a young boy whom is the son of his landowner boss. The boy, Jimmie, has been abducted by Ralph Simmons, a disgruntled former football player, along with his wife Helen and his cousin Dave. When Kimble discovers that Jimmie is a hemophiliac and that Ralph has bruised him during the abduction, Kimble must find a way to get the boy away from the kidnappers and to a hospital, or Jimmie will soon die from internal bleeding.

While working as a dock worker in Florida, Kimble is recognized by Marcie King, a young woman whom five years earlier asked Kimble to perform an abortion for her (illegal at the time; pre-Roe Vs. Wade). Kimble refused due to his religious beliefs, and Marcie went to another second-rate doctor to have it done. But after the operation, because of complications, Marcie can no longer have children and she incredibly blames Kimble for it. When a hurricane hits the area, Marcie and her boyfriend Harry, an embezzler on the run from the law, approach Kimble and threaten to turn him in unless he drives them to safety from the hurricane and the police looking for them.

Kimble is riding on a bus when the police stop it, not to arrest Kimble, but to capture an escaped convict who takes a woman hostage. Kimble disarmes the man, but gets stabbed during the struggle while the convict is shot dead. Not knowing his true identity, the police treat Kimble as a hero and transport him to a hospital for treatment, the prison hospital. When two inmates recognize Kimble in the prison infirmary, they threaten to reveal his identity unless he assists them in their drug smuggling scheme by stealing morphine from the medicine cabinet. Kimble goes along with it, but the drugs get discovered by a guard. One of the prisoners, a innocent orderly named Mickey Deming, gets accused being involved with the smuggling. Kimble recovers and is released. But he risks his freedom when he returns to try to clear Mickey of the charges.

After losing his wallet, Kimble steals another wallet to pay for his train fare. The wallet belongs to R.T. Unger, who owns a local dairy. Kimble finds work as dishwasher at a local diner in order to repay the debit. But when Unger finds his wallet missing, he calls the police. Kimble goes to Unger's house and gives back the wallet and money to Unger's daughter, Betty Jo, whom is pregnant by Neil, a disreputable youth whom works at Unger's dairy. Unger offers Neil $1,000 to leave town. But when Neil refuses, their argument turns into a fistfight where Kimble walks in and sees Neil kill Unger. Kimble flees and tries to find a way to get out of town before Neil decides to pass the blame for the killing on the fugitive.