Veteran Bus Riley returns to his hometown, his mother, and Gussie, his younger sister, to find that Laurel, his former fiancée, has married a wealthy older man. Unwilling to return to his old job as a garage mechanic, Bus becomes a vacuum-cleaner salesman. Laurel learns of Bus's return and, with her husband out of town, easily persuades Bus to resume their relationship. Judy, a friend of Gussie, loses her mother in a fire and comes to live with the Rileys, who try to promote a romance between her and Bus. Sometime later, Judy leaves town to go to live with her father, and Bus misses her. He becomes disgusted with the tactics his boss urges him to use in selling vacuum cleaners, and, depressed by the emptiness of his relationship with Laurel and attracted by the possibility of a romance with Judy, he quits his job, ends his affair with Laurel, and goes back to work as an auto mechanic.