The Thanksgiving Holiday is approaching and John Boy is excited for two reasons. Firstly he has been accepted by Boatwright University to sit for their scholarship exam, without which he will not be able to go to college, and secondly because his girlfriend Jenny is returning to Waltons Mountain with her stepmother. Whilst he is waiting, however, he has an accident at the family sawmill, when a belt running the saw flies off, hits him in the head and the impact forces him backwards into a pile of lumber. He is unconscious for some seconds and brushes it off as just a scratch, but as the days go on he experiences difficulty with his sight.