Carlos is overjoyed and Ben and his sons are amazed when Carlos beautiful and spirited eighteen-year-old sister, Isabella, appears at what until recently had been the Rivera family's ranch. Carlos had presumed she'd died in a fire in Mexico. Isabella is overjoyed at being reunited with the brother she'd feared had died in the Mexican-American war, but she's also heartbroken to learn that her former home has been sold to Margaret Davis as a war reparation. Since she's now homeless, Ben takes Isabella into the already-crowded Ponderosa, but events take a dismaying turn when a sheriff from Texas arrives in town on the trail of a ""killer"" and discovers that Isabella rode in on the murdered victim's horse. The sheriff threatens to arrest Isabella, but Ben takes responsibility for her custody, offering to stand trial for whatever crime, if any, the sheriff decides to try her for if she flees. Fearful for Isabella's life, Isabella and Carlos do flee, but when they learn what Ben has done, the