Jeff Clark tries valiantly to save his old plantation from a flood, keep his ex-waitress wife at home, and bail out his amoral brother-in-law who had a tendency to shoot upstate troopers.

Widow Bessie Halpern moves from Pennsylvania to California to be with her son Morton, who is an assistant director in Hollywood. Lonely and neglected by her son, she seeks companionship in the lonely hearts column of a newspaper.

An advertising executive loses his job after 20 years with the same agency. He has saved just enough money to support his wife and daughter for six short months.