 When the telephone comes to Walnut Grove, Mrs. Olesen is hired as the switchboard operator. The telephone company is unaware that Mrs. Olesen loves to gossip, and her new job will simply be another means to spread rumors about Walnut Grove s residents. One of the subscribers to the new Walnut Grove exchange is the Garveys. Alice places a call to her mother, in which she learns that her first husband (a drinking and gambling outlaw named Harold) has been released from prison for robbery. Alice - who has kept this fact from Jonathan - thinks this is a private conversation, but is unaware that Mrs. Olesen is listening in. Word quickly gets back to Jonathan Garvey, who demands an apology from Mrs. Olesen (she refuses, but an embarrassed Nels does before he reprimands his wife). Jonathan then goes home and gets an explanation from Alice; she didn t tell him about her first marriage because it was a mistake and thought it didn t matter, but Jonathan is angered even more because of this revelation. In the aftermath, Jonathan and Alice stop speaking to each other and Andrew becomes very upset. Jonathan decides to go on a delivery run with Charles to sort things out. After teaching Nellie a separate lesson about eavesdropping, Laura and Albert decide to teach Mrs. Olesen a real lesson about her behavior by working with town banker Bill Anderson to set up a phony stock tip. Mrs. Olesen acts on the tip and loses her share of the family s savings as a result; Nels refuses to sympathize with his wife, effectively telling her she has learned her lesson. Meanwhile, Charles and Jonathan stay with Alice s mother and learn the whole story about Harold. They later meet up with Harold, who is working in a tavern and very disheveled after his years in prison. Jonathan (who never tells Harold who he is) learns from Harold that Alice was the best thing he ever had but let her slip through his fingers through his wild living, and that the man who married him should consider himself very lucky. Jonathan realizes he needs to go home and make up with Alice ... and get rid of that darned ol  telephone.