George F. Babbitt, middle-aged, respectable, a prosperous real estate man in the city of Zenith, tired of the routine of family life, finds he has let life slip by. In an attempt to renew his youth he begins an affair with Tanis Judique, an alluring young woman, with whom he plans to leave town; at the pleas of his son, however, he returns to his sick wife, confesses his foolishness, and resumes the happiness of family life.