Micah Torrance, a once famous lawman, is introduced as a drunken derelict, who stumbles into North Fork. Micah, nursing an arm crippled in a gunfight, is hired by Lucas to help out at the ranch. Three outlaws ride into town looking for revenge against Micah. When they kill the sheriff, it's up to Lucas and Micah to protect North Fork. Micah becomes North Fork's full-time Marshal.

After Lucas kills a mountain man in a barrom brawl, his father arrives in North Fork determined to take revenge on Lucas and Marshal Torrance, once he breaks his other two boys out of jail.

To keep his invalid mother happy, an outlaw forces Lucas and Mark to go along with a masquerade that he is the owner of Lucas's ranch.

A new store owner upsets the town by demanding that all credit accounts be paid off.

Lucas is torn by conflicting emotions when he meets the town's new preacher—a former outlaw whom the Rifleman vowed to kill.