Texas cattleman Opie Bedloe (Louis Calhern) comes to Maine to visit his son Joe (Van Johnson), a college poetry instructor, and his wife Connie (Janet Leigh) in the hopes of persuading Joe to give up his teaching career and come back to Texas and take over the ranch so Opie can retire. When Opie finds out that Connie, who is expecting a baby, can not afford the steaks she yearns for on Joes salary, Opie, who believes that pregnant women must have meat, arranges for the local butcher, Spangenberg (Walter Slezak) to cut his prices in half (with Opie paying the difference) so that Connie can have the meat she desires.