 The Ingalls and the Edwards strike gold on their Dakota claim and, as the men work at extracting the ore, Caroline and Grace start a school for the miners  children with the help of the local minister, Reverend Phillips. But even as the families try to lead a normal life, greed, the bane of the gold rush, raises its ugly head. Caroline is alarmed when even Charles is unable to define how much gold is  enough  and when Laura s discovery of an old miner s secret results in murder and betrayal the Walnut Grove residents begin to question their motives for staying any longer in this dangerous country.