Jerry Van Dyke, brother of Dick Van Dyke guest stars as a carnival's destitute banjo player. He also proves to be an inept lawman when he is hired in Barney's Fife's absence.
A rancher's widow offers a reward for Matt's death after he shoots her thieving husband.
A friend of the Chief's turns out to have been living under an assumed identity for the last nineteen years, and is wanted in New York for murder. The mayor is determined to have him extradited back to NY for execution, but Ironside is equally determined to save him, especially when it becomes clear that he is innocent.
Matt tracks an army deserter and thief to his father's remote cabin, where a bloody standoff develops.
An embittered landowner (Victor Jory) endangers the drive by denying the cattle access to water on his land.
