Episode list

The circus troupe turns on Casey Thompson when he dismisses the physician he has just hired, a Dr. Sam Applewhite, immediately after learning that "he" was actually a woman doctor. When one of his performers cracks her skull, Dr. Sam proves her worth by performing an emergency operation to save the young woman's life.

Advance man Tony Gentry reports that the next town the circus will visit, Paradise, will live up to its name. It has everything a circus needs - plenty of paying customers, good water, a good campsite - everything except fresh meat. The only ranch with sufficient quantity to meet the circus' needs refuses to strike a deal with Tony, so co-owner Ben Travis decides to take over the negotiations and discovers that the cantankerous ranch owner is a lovely, love-starved woman.

Desperate to get an elephant, Casey Thompson travels far into the hinterlands to pick up a pachyderm he purchased from another wilderness circus went out of business. Upon arrival he discovers an additional expense he hadn't counted on - the elephant was almost literally eating the livery stable owner out of house and home. Unable to meet the feed bill, Casey and the livery stable owner must travel across to hostile territory on the beast to obtain the necessary funds to pay off his debt.

Travis hires Toby Mills, an alcoholic who was once a great lion tamer, to work for the circus. The show's current big cat tamer, who is as brutal to his employees and wife as he is to his animals, takes pleasure in tormenting the man for his past failures, ultimately leading to a fateful confrontation in cage with an angry lion.

When outlaws steal the circus' receipts and beat Casey Thompson in the process, Ben Travis mounts the nearest horse, a highly trained Lippizan stallion and sets off in hot pursuit. When the horse is killed in the effort, Travis commences a search to find a suitable replacement for the stallion's lovely trainer.

Ben and Tony capture Cato Richards, an ex-slave, trying to steal food from the circus and offer him a job as a roustabout. After a running gunfight with a band of Comanche Indians where Cato demonstrates his shooting skills, Cato tells Tony the real reason he joined the troupe - so he could get transportation to a town he knows an ex-Union officer lives. He plans to avenge himself on the man who gave the order to burn the plantation and kill its elderly owner where he lived during the Civil War.

A woman, on the run after shooting her vicious husband, stows away in Casey's wagon. Casey agrees to let her join his circus as the target in a knife-throwing act, but local lawmen and her vengeful spouse soon arrive to exact vengeance.

The aerialist act The Daring Durandos has suffered since the marriage of Paco to Maria. The youngest member, Tina, has sabotaged the trio with lies and half-truths, all of which come to a head as Ben Travis tries to take a hand.

When Casey Thompson is seriously injured, Tony Gentry rides to the nearest settlement to get a doctor. He discovers the town is being held captive by an outlaw gang whose leader is forcing its only physician to keep watch over his dying brother.