In a typical American Midwestern city, Hartfield, Iowa, Lew Marsh (Don Ameche) is the owner of a drugstore. Everyone knows Lew and knew his grandfather, old Gramp Marsh (Harry Carey), who had passed on. One evening, Lew and his wife, Agnes (Frances Dee), reminisce lovingly about their son, Rusty (Richard Crane), when a telegram arrives from the Navy Department informing them that Rusty had been killed in action. Lew becomes bitter, avoids people, refuses to go near the family drugstore. Gramp appears before Lew and takes him in hand and together, they revisit the past: Lews childhood; Gramp as a Civil War veteran; Lews courtship of Agnes; the birth of Rusty; Lew as a WWI soldier; Rustys boyhood days and into his attempt to decide between Lenore Prentiss and Gretchen Barry, and how Lenore becomes his girl just before he joins the Navy. This excursion into the past takes away Lews bitterness and he now sees what America means.