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The story of the Ingalls family who left their house in Wisconsin and moved to the west, wanting to find a new place for home.

Laura and Almanzo welcome their second child, a baby boy. They are undecided as far as names go, and Doc Baker examines the child to make sure he's in the best of health. But one fateful morning, the Wilders awaken to find their new baby deceased. Right away, a dumbfounded Laura places blame squarely on Doc Baker, whose business starts to wane and he considers leaving Walnut Grove. But, when Rose suddenly comes down with small pox, the good doctor is their only hope.

Snowbound on the Ingalls homestead on Christmas Eve, Caroline, Laura, and Hester-Sue share memories of Christmases past.

Caroline travels to an influenza-ridden mining camp with Dr. Baker after she receives a plea for help from an old friend who is pregnant and desperately ill. After realizing that her friend will die and that the baby's father never wanted children at all, Caroline agrees to uphold her friend's deathbed request to give her child a good home.

Caroline cuts her leg and the cut becomes a bacterial infection that puts her on a life-or-death collision course.

A misinterpreted remark from husband Charles plants a seed of worry in newly pregnant Caroline Ingalls that he will be disappointed if the baby isn't a boy.

Jonathan and Andy Garvey move to Sleepy Eye and have to deal with a gang of thieves.

Mr. Edwards arrives back to Walnut Grove harboring some disturbing secrets, namely that his marriage was ruined because of his alcoholism. His inability to stay off the bottle nearly destroys his cherished friendship with Charles when he causes an accident that nearly kills Albert. Charles tells Mr. Edwards to leave Walnut Grove and not come back, leaving Almanzo and Laura as his last hope.

Laura attends a writing seminar in Arizona, but the experience is marred by a rude professor who cuts her down at every turn.

Mr. Edwards is suspicious of a young handsome minister sent to Walnut Grove by the diocese and Reverend Alden feels his position is threatened.

Nels becomes apprehensive when he learns that a traveling circus--in which his estranged sister, an obese woman named Annabelle, is one of the stars--is coming to Walnut Grove. When he is asked to be ringmaster of the circus, he realizes that he must deal with his insecurities and make amends with his sister.

Poor financial conditions influence the Ingalls family to move to Winoka when Mary goes there to teach at the Blind School. They meet Albert, an orphan who Charles forms an attachment to, even though Laura catches him stealing from the hotel that Charles was managing and Caroline was running the kitchen/dining room for.

While Mary is going to teach at the Blind School in Winoka, and since financially they can't make a living in Walnut Grove the rest of the Ingalls family goes to Winoka, too. Charles gets a job managing a hotel and Caroline runs the Kitchen/Dining room. They make the acquaintance of an orphan, Albert who befriends the Ingalls.

Laura swears her friend Jonah to secrecy after the two uncover a shiny golden ore lying in the bed of their favorite fishing hole and both begin planning what they will do with the great wealth they are sure to have once they've mined their treasure and taken it to the bank.

During a trip to Walnut Grove, Caroline's mother passes away. Her father is very grief-stricken, until son-in-law Charles - impressed with his stories about growing up in the Little House in the Big Woods - suggests he publish an autobiography.

The sixth-season begins with several new stories. First, there's the arrival of new teacher Eliza Jane Wilder and her handsome brother, Almanzo. Rivals Laura and Nellie have their eye on the 25-year-old New York native, and are determined to do anything to snare him. Mrs. Oleson, meanwhile, gives recent Walnut School graduate Nellie her own business: A hotel and restaurant in her name!

Jonathan loses his cool at Jud Larrabee for not keeping his word about not changing their prices when someone comes along to buy grain from them. Later, Larrabee goes to Jonathan's to "get back" but finds his son, Andy, and attacks him. Andy goes to his father and they go back home and they find their barn on fire. They think Larrabee did it so they go and arrest him. He's brought to trial. Larrabee claims what happened to Andy was an accident and that he didn't burn the barn.

After finding a number of bottles containing messages, including a photograph, from a mysterious girl, Laura finds an abandoned baby. Laura takes the child in and cares for it like it was her own, not knowing it belongs to a timid young woman with an abusive father.

Mr. Standish buys the building that the Blind school has been housed in and wants to turn it into a hotel. He gives the blind school 30 days to move. Adam and Mary send a letter to Charles telling them to alert them if they hear of an available place. Rev. Alden tells Charles that when he died, Lars Hansen left the deed to a big house in his care. It's too big to sell to one family so he hasn't been able to unload it, but it's perfectly big enough for a blind school. The church votes to clean it up and get it ready for the blind school to take it over. The Winoka school is joining with another school run by Mrs. Hester Sue Terhune. When she finds out that a Mrs. Terhune is coming with the Winoka blind school, mistaking her for another lady she once knew by the name of Terhune, Harriet makes the decision to join the blind school on their journey back to Walnut Grove. She also decides to buy herself a new bedroom suit and donates her old (perfectly good one) to Mrs. Terhune's bedroom at the blind school.

Joe Kagen joins Charles and goes to Winoka because they're going to have an extra wagon to bring home. They get to the blind school and see the awful team of horses and the wagon that Mr. Standish tricked Adam into buying even though his contract clearly stated that he would have the best team in the stable. Charles takes the horses into the saloon and convinces Mr. Standish that those aren't his best team and wagon. Then, Charles is surprised in Winoka to find out that Harriet has joined them for the trip home. On the trip, Harriet says she prefers to walk instead of riding on the wagon with Joe. They go about a day and a half before meeting with the train on which Mrs. Terhune's school is meeting them. She is a black lady and has about 6-8 black blind children with her. Harriet is shocked that she is not the lady she thought she was. She acts rather stand-offish around the black children, and one little boy in particular can read her behavior. He talks to Joe Kagen about her behavior and Joe, not knowing that Harriet is listening tells the boy that some people think that just because their skin is a different color they are different. Harriet is offended and later rides with this boy and Joe on the wagon.

Unable to get work in Sleepy Eye, Adam decides to become Walnut Grove's first lawyer, and gets his first case defending a man who sold worthless share of his land.

Laura Ingalls is horrified to witness the fall from a tree that blinds her friend, Jordan Harrison, while he's performing a circus stunt. But when she finds out that Jordan's sight has returned, Laura must decide whether it's right when he asks her to keep it a secret, especially after Jordan tells her that his parents' concern for him appears to have brought them back from the brink of divorce.

Kind Miss Beadle dismisses her students early on Christmas Eve as soft snow flurries begin to fly, unaware that the children will soon be caught walking home in a deadly, howling blizzard.

When Nellie Oleson is seriously injured after falling from Bunny, a horse that used to belong to Laura Ingalls, Nellie's mother blames Laura for the accident and orders the animal destroyed. But Laura secretly steals her still-beloved Bunny away from Mrs. Oleson's vengeance and resigns herself to the penance of waiting hand and foot on a demanding, bedridden Nellie.

An eccentric old woman who has set up her "house" in the center of town and a stray dog who hitches a ride to Plum Creek from Mankato in Charles Ingalls' wagon both, in their own way, help Laura through the loss of an old friend and teach her and rest Walnut Grove lessons in love and acceptance.