Linc is back in trouble. They boys are house-sitting, (still in Florida) and the owner's dog becomes injured. The old lady next door claims she saw Linc cut the little dog, (a dachshund) with a pair of garden shears he was using. He's arrested and his trial becomes front page news in the small town, where nothing ever happens. Tod is going with a girl who works as the secretary for the "best lawyer in town" who agrees to represent Linc. Meanwhile Tod is again placed in the positon of trying to convince people that Linc isn't such a bad guy. He has a hard time doing this, (they are "outsiders" and drifters as well). The lawyer decides it's best for his client to plead guilty.
The old lady is played by Miriam Hopkins who was familiar with this type of story, having been in both "These Three" (1936) and "The Children's Hour", (1962), both versions of the same Lillian Hellman story about the teachers in the girls school who are accused of lesbianism, (although in the sanitized 1936 version it was just a love triangle with Joel McCrea, the leading man). Both are about neurotic gossips, people jumping to conclusions and the tragedy that can result. Ralph Meeker is the initially cynical attorney and Kathryn Hays, one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen, is his secretary.