A mother delivers her son to Gold Hill, saying that he's been incorrigible in school. The real reason is that his father is a child abuser and the mother fears for her son's life. When the father comes after the boy, Murphy intervenes and accidentally kills the man while trying to restrain him. Murphy faces the crisis he's feared all his life—that his great size and strength might kill if unleashed.

Murphy and Mae join the Pinkertons on a cross-country train chase when one of their young orphans becomes heir to a large inheritance... and is kidnapped in an attempt to keep her from showing up to claim it.

Murphy and Moses find trouble on a freight run when an old yarn-spinner convinces a whole town that Murphy is a famous bank robber. The fireworks begin when the real robber shows up.

Garrett ruins Gold Hill's benefit Fourth of July show by stealing all the fireworks Murphy has especially ordered and locking them in his saloon safe. A comical old safecracker on the lam befriends Murphy and the kids and liberates the pyrotechnics ... in a most unusual way.

The kids decide Moses needs some romance in his life, so they send away for a mail-order bride. Her arrival precipitates comic explosions in Gold Hill, but by the time Moses realizes she's a wonderful woman, she's decided to go back to her old boyfriend back east.