Once again in the last years of Gunsmoke, we get the traditional Western story turned on its head. Marshal Dillon finds a girl whose family was killed by bandits. Instead of tracking them down and killing them all in an exciting gun-fight, we get Marshal Dillon the social worker. He takes the girl, Bessie, to her aunt who lives nearby.
Fortunately, some Western-style action happens when it turns out that Bessie's aunt has had her home commandeered by one of the bandits. So at least we get that. Bessie is played by Eileen McDonough, a pretty girl with a lot of personality. She acts circles around her incredibly plain and boring aunt, played by Carol Vogel.
Aunt Carol wants nothing to do with Bessie. Bessie is a bit of a brat, and she gets upset that her aunt is not overjoyed to take on a whiny dependant. So Bessie takes off on her horse Guardian, and manages to break the horse's leg. Then she has a fit because her aunt has to kill the horse. Just alot of family drama. The Waltons meet Little House on the Prairie. Eventually Matt Dillon guilts the aunt enough so that she keeps the kid.
A Western style sequel would have been nice, where the aunt turns out to have sold Bessie to Comancheros, and Dillon, Festus, and Newly have to rescue Bessie, with six-guns blazing.