James Alden, millionaire owner of an automobile factory, is ill from overwork and his doctor advises him to retire out West. He resists, but out of consideration for his wife Laura and daughter Barbara, nicknamed Babs, he finally agrees. At the California resort, Jim is bored. After learning from insurance salesman Schofield that retired men are bad risks, Jim follows his suggestion to buy and run a little business on the sly for his own amusement. Jim buys a half-interest in a gas station unaware that a new state highway will eventually bypass the busy location. He convinces his partner, Bill Merrick, a personable young man whose family has lost its money, to invest additional capital in the venture. With this money and Bill's talents as an architect, they open a new station across the road from the station's dishonest former owner, Peterson. Soon, most of Peterson's customers are patronizing the elegant new station. Even Babs stops there. She and Bill recognize each other from college and start to date. Jim, who is using the alias Charles Miller, has kept his business a secret, but is discovered first by Babs and then by Laura. They realize that the work has given Jim new life. When Peterson offers to buy the station, Jim manages to get enough money out of him for Bill to go into business as an architect and marry Babs. Now that he is well again, Jim returns to Alden Engineering.