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Mary Ann Martin (Patricia Breslin) leaves her farmstead and rides to town while her young son, Cricket (Casey Peters) rides off to visit nearby Shiloh Ranch. Mary Ann passes a man, Corbett (Joseph Campanella), she notices stopped by the road. Ensuring the house is empty, Corbett enters and begins searching through it. Later, the Mary Ann shows the Virginian the house has been ransacked but nothing seems to have been stolen. In town, Corbett sends a telegram to Judith Holly (Ruta Lee) in Kansas City. She soon arrives by train and happens to meet the Virginian who gives her a lift to the hotel. At the hotel, Judith meets Corbett who tells her he has the "real goods" and that means lots of money. The next morning he takes her so she can have a good look at Cricket. He asks her how it feels to see her son after 12 years, but she shows little emotion, and it is revealed Corbett is a detective. The two go to town to visit lawyer Andrew Cass (Whit Bissell) and Corbett says he has proof Cricket is not Mary Ann's son.

The Virginian visits Mary Ann to help with some chores and deputy Earl Lauren (Mark Tapscott) arrives and serves Mary Ann with a restraining order which claims Cricket is not her son. Lawyer Samuel Bowman (J. Pat O' Malley) visits Andrew Cass on Mary Ann's behalf and Cass reveals he has proof written in a bible that Mary Ann's husband and real son were killed in a fire. Mary Ann returns to her farm and finds her bible is missing. She panics and tries to run away with Cricket but the wheel falls off the wagon and she is injured. The boy goes to the Virginian for help and he summons a doctor. Mary Ann has a concussion and needs rest so the Virginian arranges for her to be brought to Shiloh where Betsy can watch over her. Mary Ann tells that her bible has been stolen and she suspects it was the man she saw on the road, Corbett.

The Virginian rides to town and confronts Corbett, saying he will go to the Sheriff and have him arrested for housebreaking if he does not give back the bible. Corbett tells the Virginian to come to his hotel room. They end up in a set to with the Virginian knocking Corbett unconscious. He finds the bible under a mattress but as he is leaving he encounters Judith who gets him to read the inscription revealing Mary Ann's real son had died. In tears she says she had the baby at 17, that the father died before they could be married, and that she gave the baby up to a foster parent. After the Virginian leaves Corbett recovers and it is revealed the crying was an act, Judith being an actress. Returning to Mary Ann, the Virginian learns that she went to Nashville after her son and husband's deaths and through a mid-wife was given the baby as the actress mother did not want it; nor did the mother ever come to try and reclaim the baby. The Virginian convinces lawyer Bowman to look into Judith's past and find out why she now wants the son.

The Virginian confronts Judith and offers to take her to see the boy which she resists until he asks her how that would look in court. At Shiloh and he leaves her with Mary Ann but it resolves nothing. The Virginian tells Judith he thought it might help if she saw how things were between Mary Ann and the boy. Returning to town, Corbett thinks Judith is having second thoughts and tells her she better not go soft. That night Cricket himself sneaks into town to visit Judith and asks her to let him stay with Mary Ann but seems to have little effect.

At the hearing the next day, Judith testifies she is the boy's mother and her lawyer produces letters from the mid-wife that she gave the baby to Mary Ann. In his cross-examination Bowman gets her to admit that his father was from a wealthy family, that she had not looked for the boy until about a year ago, and that her interest in the boy coincides with the grandfather's death and the naming of the grandson in the will. The Judge (Walter Woolf King) recesses and when he returns, notes Judith's motives are suspect but that she is still the mother of the boy. Before he can award her custody, however, she interrupts saying she is not the boy's mother but only a fellow actress who knew her, and that Corbett did not know this fact – so her suit is dismissed. At the train station the Virginian sees her off and promises to write her about the boy's progress, not being fooled by her lie. As the train leaves, Corbett enters the car and sits with her and reveals he did not like her when they seemed to have the money in the bag. She says likewise about him, hinting at a brewing romance.