Wealthy Herbert Dodsworth, the son of a small town's leading family, returns home and attempts to prove his manhood. At first he fails at everything: an address to the Royal Order of Woodchucks ends in comic disaster, and he falls overboard while fishing for tuna. Herbert falls in love with Lettie Ewing, a waitress in a tearoom, however, and finally proves himself to be as good a man as any of his successful ancestors.