Leon Ames

It is a typical morning in the Wetherly house. Carol is trying to get her three children (Brad, Mary Liz, and Scottie) up and ready for school. Her husband Tom and older son Brad go on a quick bike ride. Tom is rather critical of Brad, especially when his son is unable to reach the top of a steep hill. On the way home they greet an elderly neighbor, Henry Abhart, and Mike, the owner of a gas station. Mike has a special needs son, Hiroshi, who sometimes goes fishing with the Wetherlys. Carol is helping to direct a play at the elementary school. Since their California town is named Hamlin, the children are putting on "The Pied Piper of Hamelin." Mary Liz provides a piano accompaniment and Scottie plays a little crippled boy. That night, Carol is unable to sleep. She wakes Tom, worried about what to get Brad for his thirteenth birthday. Tom sleepily reminds her that it isn't for another two months. They discuss how fast Brad is growing up and Carol decides to start keeping a diary. The next afternoon, the children are watching TV in the living room. Carol is listening to the answering machine messages. There is one from her mother in Chicago. Tom is in San Francisco on a business trip. He leaves two messages; one that he will be home for dinner and another one stating that he won't be able to make it after all. The TV picture is fuzzy and Brad fusses with the antenna. The telephone rings and Carol answers but the call is apparently lost. Suddenly the program is interrupted by a special report. Bombs are falling up and down the east coast and in other locations, including nearby San Francisco. Citizens are urged to stay off the telephones as the lines must be kept open for official use. Stay tuned for a message from the White House. Just then the TV goes off completely and loud sirens are heard. A bright light is seen outside. Carol screams for the children to get on the floor and cover their eyes. After the sirens and light are gone, people begin venturing outside their homes. A child is heard crying. Everyone is asking what happened. Later most of the neighbors gather at the Abhart home. Carol leaves a note for Tom in case he comes home. Henry is a ham radio operator and has been in contact with other cities that were hit. He can't raise anyone in San Francisco at all. Carol asks if he's been able to contact Chicago but the answer is no. Attempting to be as positive as possible, Henry assures his neighbors that they are down but not out. If anyone needs food or water, the Abharts will share what they have. Henry will keep on trying to reach other cities. At the gas station, Mike is only serving his regular customers. All others, especially those who never had time for him and Hiroshi, are ordered away at gunpoint. Carol wants to pay for her gas but Mike tells her it has already been paid for many times over. Tom never turns up. Carol takes in Larry, a neighbor's child whose parents are missing. At a community meeting, the mayor, police chief, and Rev. Hollis are optimistic that help will arrive. There has been looting at the supermarket and pharmacy, but those places are now under guard. There are questions about exposure to radiation. Cathy Pitkin, a young mother and friend of the Wetherlys, is worried about the health of her baby. The doctor says that he doesn't have the equipment to measure how much radiation they've all been exposed to. Food is rationed and batteries are collected to be given out as needed. Brad catches an older boy stealing batteries and confronts him. Gradually people begin to fall ill. Each day Henry Abhart is able to reach fewer cities. But life keeps going. The children give their play. Mary Liz continues her piano lessons with Henry's wife. Then the Pitkins' baby dies. They decide to leave and find a safer place, assuring Carol that they will come back one day. The doctor also leaves. There are rumors of survivors' camps in northern Canada, but the Wetherlys decide to remain in Hamlin. Scottie falls ill and dies. Carol tears the house apart looking for his teddy bear but she can't find it. Rev. Hollis is unable to wait any longer and begins the service. Mary Liz asks her mother what sex is like, realizing that she herself will never know. Brad continues his daily visits to Henry, whose wife is now ill. He asks Brad to take over her job of checking on the neighbors. Carol has been writing in her diary but can no longer remember the date. Larry dies and then Mary Liz. The boy who was stealing batteries breaks into the Wetherly home. Brad runs him off but the boy steals his bike. Reluctantly he begins using his father's bicycle, recalling the last morning they rode together. A second community meeting is sparsely attended. Many have died. The police chief, visibly exhausted and ill, says that his men are on duty and will remain for as long as possible. Garbage pickup is suspended as they don't have the manpower. There is no longer any hope that help will arrive. Rev. Hollis urges people to bury the dead carefully as the cemetery is now full. Hiroshi's father has died and Brad brings the boy home. Carol is now showing symptoms of radiation poisoning but manages to keep going. While she is watching a bonfire at the cemetery, Brad brings word of Henry Abhart's death. After he leaves, Carol begins screaming and pulling up chunks of grass. Rev. Hollis finds her and they kiss, not from love but the sheer need of human contact. Carol and Brad decide to end their lives, taking Hiroshi with them. They close the garage door and climb into the car. Carol starts the engine, then cuts it off. She can't bring herself to go through with it. Brad also has changed his mind. It is his birthday. As a treat, Carol spreads graham crackers with jam and lights candles. Hiroshi suddenly brings her Scottie's teddy bear. She is overjoyed and asks where he found it but he can't tell her. Although they will all soon die, the mood is one of peace.

Bill (George Burns) is an elderly ex-vaudevillian performer who lives alone in a large, comfortable home. He awakens to a special alarm clock that activates his home stereo system, waking him to his favorite music. Along the way, Bill looks at photographs of his deceased wife, who apparently used to be part of his act. After breakfast, Bill goes to the supermarket, driving his unique classic automobile, a meticulously preserved 1930s model Pierce-Arrow; he compulsively takes two orange parking cones out of the trunk and places them in the two parking spaces next to his, to block anybody from parking near his car. Inside the market, Bill interacts in a friendly way with two employees, charming them with a magic trick. Kate (Brooke Shields) is a young teenage girl who is in a domestic squabble with an intimidating man named Demesta (William Russ). Kate, who is apparently nude and is wrapped in a towel, has locked herself in a bathroom to hide from Demesta, who pounds angrily on the door and demands to know the details of a drug deal that Kate has fouled up. He screams at her to give him either his money or his drugs. Frightened, Kate escapes through the bathroom window, still wrapped only in a towel, while a policeman suddenly knocks on the front door of the apartment and grapples with Demesta. The policeman chases Demesta down the street while Kate goes in a different direction, slipping down over a hillside staircase and losing her towel in the process. She runs away totally nude. Bill comes out of the grocery store talking to the bag boy about magic tricks, but when he opens his trunk to replace his orange parking cones, they both see Kate lying naked in his trunk, covered only in a deflated tire tube. Stunned and suddenly in a very compromising position (with a naked teenage girl in his trunk), Bill convinces the bag boy that it was just an illusion and he drives away. He stops on a secluded side street to question Kate, who asks Bill to take her to his house. He reluctantly agrees. Bill tries to get Kate to tell him what's going on, but she avoids all his questions, telling him crazy things like that her parents died on the Titanic and that she has no last name. Bill responds sarcastically to her jibes, but he also does his best to help Kate with whatever trouble she may be in. Instead of going to the police, he allows her to take shelter in his home, allowing her to choose some of his clothes to wear and even altering them so they fit her better. Kate refuses to answer any of his questions, and she attempts to escape Bill's house by dropping out of an upstairs window, spraining her ankle in the process. This attracts the attention of Bill's neighbors, Stan (John Schuck) and Sue (Andrea Howard), a nosy couple who try and figure out who the strange girl is at Bill's house. Bill goes to visit his friend Max (Burl Ives), who is a resident of a nursing home. Max apparently lived with Bill before being confined to the facility due to his despondent condition; Max has retreated into his mind and hasn't spoken a word in years, refusing to react to external stimulus. Bill still makes a habit of visiting him daily, cheerfully telling him about everything that's going on. He tells Max about Kate, saying that he feels as if he has to help her, although he doesn't know how. Later, Bill also receives a visit from his daughter, Shirl (Lorraine Gary) and her husband, Harris (Nicolas Coster). Shirl feels Bill is becoming senile and she tries to get him to sign a document that will give Shirl control over his bank account; when Bill refuses, Shirl becomes furious, complaining that Bill is giving away all of his money, but Bill angrily rebuffs her. Meanwhile, Demesta is in a rage about Kate's betrayal. He questions Roy (Christopher Knight), a teenage friend of Kate's, in an intimidating way and tells him that he'll find Kate wherever she is. When Bill goes to get a prescription for painkillers refilled, Demesta sees him in the pharmacy, but is unaware that he is connected to Kate. Stan and Sue step up their interfering and call Shirl to tell her they saw a young girl in Bill's house. When Shirl returns, she demands to see Kate but Bill refuses to let her in the house. He also refuses to acknowledge that he's harboring a juvenile, denying anything is wrong, much to Shirl's dismay and fury. Shirl suggests to Harris in a private moment that her father has been unstable ever since his vaudeville career went bad, identifying a disatrous show in Pittsburgh as the turning point. Harris thinks Shirl just misunderstands Bill, and encourages her to accept Bill's eccentric ways. Bill and Kate have a conversation where she reveals to him that she's on the run from a drug dealer. She claims Demesta gave her money to make a connection and pay for a cache of product, which she then threw into a sewer in a moment of panic. Bill tells her to go to the police, but Kate is afraid to do this because of the consequences for herself. Bill is happy that Kate has opened up to him finally; he genuinely likes her and feels that she has never had a nurturing home, being shuttled between foster homes. He invites her to come live with him, but Kate tells him that one has to be a certain age to be a foster parent. "I'm not old enough?" he jokes. Bill's poker buddies, whom he calls the "No Shirt Gang", all arrive to play cards at Bill's house, and he introduces Kate to them. They promise to be discreet about her presence, and the evening is interrupted when Shirl makes good on her promise to return with the police. The No Shirt gang hides Kate with a magic trick, levitating her up to the ceiling. When the girl can't be found, Shirl is even more furious. The next day, Bill leaves for his daily visit to Max, and he has a conversation with Kate, explaining Max's situation to her. Kate feels as if Max may need some tough love, recalling a young boy she once knew who also refused to talk. Kate tells Bill that the boy started talking once all the other kids ignored him. When Bill visits Max, he tells Max that he will never come to see him again; unless Max talks, it's goodbye forever. As a result, Max breaks down and begs Bill not to leave, and they embrace. Bill returns to the house excitedly to tell Kate the good news, but he finds that Kate is gone and the house is empty. Bill is despondent. Meanwhile, Kate returns to her foster home and gets a few of her belongings. She meets up with Roy at school, and Roy warns her that Demesta is looking for her. Then Kate reveals what really has her scared: she never made the connection in the first place, and still has the $20,000 cash that Demesta gave her to pay for the drugs. Roy is shocked and tells Kate that Demesta will kill her if he finds her, but Kate plans to leave town with the money. When Roy tells Kate that Demesta has been questioning everybody about Bill, Kate is horrified that Demesta knows where she was hiding, and that any moment now he will track down Bill's house and confront him. She returns to Bill's house, unable to leave town without making sure her new friend is aware of the danger he's in. While she is there, Demesta forces his way into the house; Kate has the $20,000 in her teddy bear, but she and Bill manage to subdue Demesta. After a chase through Bill's house, Bill holds Demesta at bay with a sword, forcing him into a large bag covered in padlocks. When they have him incapacitated, Bill reveals that the sword is a fake, one of Max's props from his magic act. With the police summoned and Demesta arrested, Bill and Kate celebrate by drinking tomato juice. Shirl arrives and is terrified when she sees the police at Bill's house, but Bill talks to her about the strange events that have been going on. Then he asks Shirl a favor. We then see Bill back at the rest home; Max is packing his belongings, preparing to go back home with Bill. Bill explains that Shirl and Harris have agreed to act as foster parents for Kate, and that Kate will stay with Bill and Max on the weekends. The film ends as Bill and Max walk out to greet Kate, who is guarding Bill's car by making sure nobody parks near it.

In this 1953 remake of the the 1937 film "The Awful Truth," Jane Wyman and Ray Milland play Constance and Gary Hart, a New York show-biz couple. She's a singer and dancer and he's a songwriter. But he's also a philanderer and she turns the tables on him by pretending to spend the night with their friend Courtney (Tom Helmore), an older (and sexually ambiguous) male friend. Constance is furious at Gary. She wants a husband who's "there" for her. But no sooner does she throw Gary out, than he becomes constantly underfoot, hanging around their apartment songwriting on his old piano that's too big to remove without taking out the window. Maybe she doesn't want a man who's really "there" after all? After all, she does sing a song called "Taking a Slow Burn Over A Fast Man" about being in love with a heel. Constance files for divorce and they both fall into dissatisfying single lifestyles. Constance finds herself living a spinsterish life with her maid Nelly, who lovingly tucks a hot water bottle in a needlepoint pillow and pops it in her bed each night before she goes home. Gary's also leading a superficial bachelor life at the Sherry-Netherland with his valet. Both enter into imperfect relationships: Gary is dating an elegant socialite, Deborah Randolph (Karin Booth). Constance still spends time with the dapper Courtney, but we know he's not really interested in her sexually. A younger man, Frank (Aldo Ray), a uranium millionaire from Alaska, and a longtime admirer of Constance's, arranges to meet her at a backer's audition for Courtney's new show, and immediately goes after her. But is he really the dull guy Constance thinks she's looking for? He likes a night on the town and does a mean "Cuban Mambo" on the dance floor. Also in the picture is Lilly Adair (played by famed dancer Valerie Bettis), a rather outrageously sexual singer-dancer at an upper-crust nightclub, where Gary runs into Constance and Frank, "by chance." There, Lilly performs a song "I Long for Love the Jungle Way," suggesting that it's a lack of physicality that's at the bottom of Gary and Constance's marital problems. Although wooing Constance, Frank's fascination with Lilly is evident. Gary, having discovered that Constance had only pretended to spend the night with Courtney to get back at him, wakes her up with a song he wrote called "Let's Do It Again." He wants her back. But in the meantime, Courtney proposes to Constance in her bedroom (even though he swore he would never get married), so that she'll stay in her "own world." Gary, ready to reconcile, comes back to the apartment. Constance tries to hide Courtney, but he's discovered when Gary accidentally puts on Courtney's larger hat by accident. Could this mean that despite his asexuality towards women, Courtney is more of a man than Gary? They get into a fist fight in Constance's bedroom and Frank comes to visit, ready to take Constance home to meet his parents in Seattle. Their relationship ends, but Constance was never really committed to Frank anyhow. Gary, who for a city slicker is amazingly naive about Courtney's sexual disinterest in Constance, goes back to Deborah with a vengeance. Constance puts on a sexy, wedding style outfit on the day their divorce decree becomes final. Gary wants her signature for permission to take the window out of the apartment so he can move his piano. She wants to get back together with him. She opens a huge bottle of champagne in the kitchen, closes the blinds and turns out the lights. But Deborah calls just as Constance pops the cork and Gary pretends he's with his sister. Gary gives Constance a rude brush-off. But Constance fights back; pretending to be Gary's sister, she calls Deborah and has her arrange a party at Gary's hotel suite. Not only that, Deborah's parents are in town to meet Gary. The only parents mentioned in this film are Frank and Deborah's; it suggests that that even though they're in touch with their sexuality in a way that Gary and Constance aren't, neither of them are truly adults. Constance brazenly enters the party pretending to be Gary's sister. Like Irene Dunne in "The Awful Truth," she's wonderfully trashy. She does a mean imitation of Lilly, and we hear "I Long For Love The Jungle Way" a second time, this time sung by Constance. Deborah's parents and the rest of the guests leave in disgust. Deborah throws in the towel, saying to Gary that Constance must really still love him. Frank and Lilly end up getting together--after all, they're emotional equals. Gary wants Constance to stay at the hotel with him, but she runs back to her apartment in tears. Nelly's waiting with the hot water bottle. And Constance is not so distraught that she can't put on one last beautiful outfit, a white negligee that evokes a wedding night. Nelly leaves and Gary bangs on the bedroom door. Constance's weeping and clutching the hot water bottle that symbolizes her solitary female life. She has a chance at the husband she thought she always wanted, one who will be always there. She lets Gary in and they passionately embrace. The film ends with needlepointed hot water bottle discarded on the floor. It's tossed aside for now, but it's still in the couple's bedroom. This suggests that their marital problems are not quite over. Constance is going to have to give up more than Frank to make this marriage work. "Let's Do It Again," maybe because it's a remake, is thematically more of a thirties or early forties film than a fifties one. Constance wants a steady husband, but she's not interested in being a housewife. She has no interest in giving up her career or having children. Ray Milland is serviceable in this film as Gary, but he's no Cary Grant. This makes Constance's choices more problematic than Lucy's in The Awful Truth. But he probably helps foot the bill for her drop-dead wardrobe. Constance appears in one beautiful outfit after another throughout the film; that New York apartment must have a lot of closet space. Jane Wyman is Irene Dunne's equal in this remake. As the years go on, Wyman has become overly identified with the dull, virtuous women she played in Douglas Sirk's films. It's nice to see her let loose here and it reminds us that she was also a great comic actress.

Shortly before America enters World War I, the Winfield family move into a new neighborhood. Although they now have a bigger house, no one is happy about the move but Mr. Winfield. His wife complains that nothing fits; the curtains are too short and the carpets aren't wide enough. Their children, eighteen-year-old Marjorie and eleven-year-old Wesley, are also grumpy. The maid Stella reports that the kitchen is too big and she won't be able to get food to the table while it's still hot. Mr. Winfield ignores their pleas to move back to their old house. He spots a neighbor boy outside and orders Wesley to introduce himself and be friendly. The boy, Jim Sherman, claims that his father has a pistol once used to shoot outlaw Jesse James. Wesley asks to see it. They retrieve the pistol and go into the Shermans' barn to shoot it. But it won't work. Marjorie, who has joined a baseball game, sees the boys enter the barn and runs to stop them from getting hurt. She grabs the pistol from Wesley and tries to put the safety device back in place. Outside, a handsome young man is calling for Jim, obviously his brother because he shouts that their mother is looking for him. Marjorie accidentally fires the pistol, narrowly missing the young man and blowing the barn doors off. Jim gasps that his brother is dead. But although knocked down, Bill Sherman is very much alive. The boys run off, leaving Marjorie to face the music. Because she is wearing a baseball uniform, Bill mistakes her for a boy. But when he turns her over his knee and spanks her, he realizes she is a girl. Later that evening, Bill comes to take Marjorie dancing at a local resort, Moonlight Bay. It is tomboy Marjorie's first date and she is uncomfortable in a dress and high heels. Her mother insists that she pad her bust with powder puffs. But while the two are dancing, the puffs fall out. Marjorie is very embarrassed and feels the evening is ruined. They stop at a carnival booth, where Bill declares he will win her a Kewpie doll. But he cannot throw and misses the pins. Marjorie takes over and manages to knock down all the pins, winning a doll for herself. When Bill takes her home, she invites him inside for a glass of buttermilk. But the lights go out and in the dark, she experiences her first kiss. Some weeks later, Mr. Winfield is annoyed because Bill is at the house all the time. He decides to ask the young man his intentions. Bill and Marjorie are sitting on the front porch, playing records and singing. Wesley is under the porch, mimicking Bill in a high-pitched whine. Marjorie stomps on the floor and dust covers Wesley, who reluctantly crawls out. He leaves when Bill gives him money for candy. Mr. WInfield joins the couple and at first is pleasant. But when Bill declares his disapproval of bankers, an embarrassed Marjorie tells him that her father is vice-president of the local bank. Bill apologizes but Mr. Winfield orders him to stay away. He encourages Marjorie to date Hubert Wakely, a boring, priggish young man who is also Wesley's piano teacher. But Marjorie can't stand him. Bill returns to college but the two write to each other. Just as she is finishing a letter to Bill, Wesley realizes he was supposed to compose a letter to a friend on a general subject, for a homework assignment. When Marjorie leaves the room, Wesley takes her letter and signs his own name. Unfortunately, the teacher, Miss Stevens, decides to have the students read their letters aloud. Wesley begins with confidence, then his voice trails off as he realizes it is a steamy love letter. The other students laugh and the teacher makes him sit on a stool the rest of the day. He decides to get even with Marjorie, even though she had done nothing to him. When Hubert Wakely comes to call, Wesley sits in the parlor with them. Hubert hints for him to leave, but he claims to be looking for his dog. At last Hubert asks Marjorie to take a walk, but Wesley follows them. It is nearly dark when they return and an exhausted Hubert takes himself off. Unknown to Bill, Marjorie begins taking dance lessons so she can learn the latest steps. Bill is coming home from college and they plan to attend the big Christmas dance. On her way home, Marjorie is accosted by several boys who throw snowballs at her. She chases after them and trips over a garbage can, badly spraining her ankle. Sadly, she telephones Bill and tells him she can't go to the dance after all. She is too embarrassed to tell him why, and believes he will not come home. Wesley is to be an angel in a group of carolers, directed by Hubert Wakely. His mother, Stella, and Marjorie make him try on his costume, complete with wings and a halo. Suddenly he realizes that it was made from an old petticoat of Marjorie's. He tears off the costume, breaking his wings, and yells that he will not be an angel because everyone will recognize Marjorie's old petticoat. He escapes his father's ire and takes refuge in a movie theater. The silent picture is about a respectable husband and father who is forced into a saloon and gets drunk. Staggering home, he beats his wife and daughter, throwing them out of the house into the snow. Then he has a change of heart, begging them to forgive them and swearing that he will never drink again. The next morning, Wesley falls asleep in class and dreams he is flying about the room. His friends applaud him, especially when he shouts at Miss Stevens to leave him alone. Suddenly he wakes up and realizes Miss Stevens is standing over him. His friends are not applauding but laughing. Wesley is in big trouble and has to stay after school. He feeds Miss Stevens the plot of the movie, substituting his real family for the actors. The reason he fell asleep in class, he says, is that he was up all night taking care of his mother and sister after they were beaten by his father Miss Stevens is moved to tears and assures him that she understands. The next day, Mrs. Winfield reports running into Miss Stevens and having the teacher take her hand. She found it quite embarrassing when Miss Stevens told her to take courage, that everything would be all right. Miss Stevens also says that she is sure Wesley is a great comfort to Mrs. Winfield. No one can understand any of it and Mr. Winfield thinks Miss Stevens may be going senile. Later that evening, Stella applies rubbing alcohol to Marjorie's leg. Since Wesley still refuses to wear his angel costume, his father orders him to bed. He falls asleep on the sofa and Mrs. Winfield spreads a newspaper over his face, to keep out the light. Suddenly there is a persistent knocking at the door. It is Bill, home from college. He strides over to Marjorie and, on seeing her injured ankle, announces that it is true. He didn't believe any of it, even after what Miss Stevens told him about Mr. Winfield drinking and beating his family. The Winfields are bewildered and Wesley, lingering on the stairs, knows he is about to be found out. Bill says he can smell alcohol and Marjorie shows him the bottle of rubbing alcohol. Bill is so disgusted that he throws it into the fire, causing a big blaze. Before anyone can stop him, he grabs a picture of water and pours it on Mr. Winfield, accusing him of being a drunken brute. Marjorie screams at him to get out, that she never wants to see him again. Stella threatens him with a mop and Mrs. Winfield asks if he has lost his mind. Before being propelled through the front door, Bill says that Miss Stevens told him the whole story, which she had gotten from Wesley. Suddenly the family realizes what must have happened. Marjorie hobbles outside, begging Bill to come back. Mr. Winfield goes looking for Wesley, intending to give him a sound spanking. But his son is missing. Bill accepts Marjorie's apology and they kiss. Just then the carolers come down their street. Wesley is on the front row, wearing his costume with its broken wings. He looks so innocent that his parents decide not to punish him. In the spring, the Winfields attend Bill's college graduation. He hints that he has a surprise for Marjorie but won't tell her what it is, adding that she will know soon enough. Mr. Winfield has come to accept Bill and asks Marjorie if they will be setting a date soon. When she replies that he doesn't believe in marriage, Mr. Winfield is shocked and then angry. He forces the family to leave the ceremony, even though Bill, as valedictorian, is making a speech. At the end of it, he and the other graduates remove their robes. They are wearing army uniforms, having just enlisted. Even that doesn't move Mr. Winfield. He orders Marjorie never to see Bill again. Time passes and Marjorie continues to grieve for Bill. With her father's encouragement, Hubert Wakely begins calling on Marjorie again. Mrs. Winfield says that Marjorie can't stand him, but Mr. Winfield believes that will change. Best of all, Hubert was turned down for the army because of his punctured ear drum. Stella makes a crack about him having punctured it just before his physical. Jim Sherman asks if Wesley can go to the train station with him, as a troop train carrying Bill will be passing through. Mr. Winfield says no. Wesley grumbles that he doesn't see why he can't go, since Marjorie is going. His parents are shocked to learn that Wesley saw her packing a suitcase. Realizing that she intends to elope with Bill, Mr. Winfield hurries to the station to stop her. Marjorie searches the cars until she finds Bill. She declares her intention of going with him, no matter what her father says. She will get a place to live near the army camp. They go outside and he proposed marriage to her. She accepts and he tells her to get the next train to Chicago, where he will meet her and they will be married at once. But Mr. Winfield appears and tears Marjorie away, telling her she is coming home to grow up. Wesley apologizes to Marjorie for telling on her and she says it doesn't matter now. Bill is gone and it will be a very long time, if ever, before she sees him again. The Winfields throw a party for Wesley to celebrate his twelfth birthday. Their elderly Aunt Martha arrives and gives him three presents; a box of home-baked cookies and a pocketknife. The last is a slingshot. Aunt Martha explains that she took it away from Wesley's father thirty-five years ago, when he was twelve, after he killed her best laying hen. She thinks maybe he can be trusted with it now. The party is a wash-out, since Hubert Wakely is in charge of the entertainment and bores the children by playing and singing. Wesley is mad because he couldn't have the sort of party he wanted, and after a while slips away. Meanwhile, Bill comes to the back door and asks for Marjorie. He has an unexpected pass home, but can only stay a short time. Marjorie rushes into his arms and Mr. Winfield reminds him that he is not welcome in their home. Marjorie asks for and receives permission to walk to the gate with him. Meanwhile, Mrs. Winfield confronts her husband. She reminds him that Bill is a great deal like himself as a young man. Marjorie comes in and rushes upstairs, sobbing. Wesley uses the slingshot, only it breaks and sends the stone crashing through the front window. Mr. Winfield is furious until Wesley tells him what Aunt Martha said. He had forgotten the incident and ponders briefly. Then he goes to the phone and calls the Sherman residence, asking whoever answers to tell Bill that his across the street neighbor suddenly remembered that he was young once. Marjorie overhears and after kissing her father, rushes outside. Bill meets her halfway and they embrace. Hubert Wakely, on his way out, realizes he has lost Marjorie once and for all. Wesley hands him his hat and Hubert jams it on his head. The brim has been cut and the hat is ruined. Wesley smiles and looks at his pocketknife as Hubert stalks angrily down the street.

In St. Louis, Missouri in the summer of 1903, seventeen-year-old Esther Smith fantasizes about meeting John Truett, the shy boy-next-door, while her older sister Rose frets about her beau, Warren Sheffield, who is off at Yale. Sure that Warren, who is calling Rose at 6:30 p.m. that evening, is finally going to propose to her sister, Esther arranges with Katie, the Smiths' housekeeper, for the family to eat dinner early, so that Rose will have some privacy while talking on the telephone. Esther's cantankerous father Alonzo, who has not been told about the expected call, ruins her plan, however, when he insists on eating at the usual time. During dinner, everyone, including Esther's five-year old sister "Tootie," tries to hurry Lon along, but the phone rings just as the main course is being served. As her family eavesdrops on the entire conversation, Rose attempts to prod Warren into a proposal, but he gets mired in small talk and hangs up without uttering a single romantic word. Later, at Esther's urging, Rose invites John to a farewell party for her older brother Lon, Jr., who is going to Princeton. At the party, Esther at first feigns indifference to John, but hides his hat to keep him at the house and then asks him to help her turn off all the lights. Although John is clearly attracted to the flirtatious Esther, he is too shy to kiss her, and instead gives her a hearty handshake. Before he leaves, Esther invites him to join her family that Sunday for a tour of the St. Louis Exposition fairgrounds, and he tentatively accepts. On Sunday, Esther waits eagerly for John at the trolley stop, but he has not arrived by the time the trolley is scheduled to leave. As the trolley is pulling away, however, John appears and, to Esther's joy, hops on next to her. Several months later, Tootie and her slightly older sister Agnes dress up as goblins and go out to celebrate Halloween with the neighborhood children. Anxious to prove herself, Tootie, who is preoccupied with death, insists on calling feared neighbor Mr. Braukoff to his door and, following the local custom, blows flour in his face. After Tootie is declared the "most horrible," she throws her family into a panic when she returns home, crying, bruised and cut. Tootie claims that John hit her by the trolley tracks, and although Esther at first refuses to believe her, she changes her mind when a clump of hair is discovered in Tootie's hand. Enraged, Esther storms over to John's house, accuses him of being a bully and then beats and bites him. Later, however, Tootie and Agnes confess that John actually saved them from being arrested after they almost caused an accident on the trolley tracks. Esther rushes back to John's house to apologize, and John not only forgives her, but flirts with her as well. Later that evening, Lon, a lawyer, returns home to announce that his firm is transferring him to New York. Although Lon is enthusiastic about the transfer, which involves a promotion, Anna and the children react with shock and worry. Eventually, however, Anna agrees to the move, and the Smiths plan to leave St. Louis after Christmas. Several weeks later on Christmas Eve, Rose is upset because the visiting Warren has invited Lucille Ballard, an Easterner, to the local Christmas dance instead of her. Back from Princeton, Lon, Jr., also is frustrated because he wanted to ask Lucille to the dance. After Katie convinces Lon, Jr., to escort Rose to the dance, Esther's plans are disrupted when John is forced to break his date with her because he did not get to the tailor's soon enough to pick up his tuxedo. Although Esther assures John she is not upset, she later breaks down in tears and refuses to be escorted by Lon, Jr. When Esther's grandfather, however, offers to take her, she gratefully accepts. At the dance, Esther and Rose scheme against Lucille, whom they have never met, by filling out her dance card with the names of clods. Their plan backfires when Lucille turns out to be nice and insists that Rose be with Warren, while she goes with Lon, Jr. Embarrassed, Esther gives Lucille her dance card, then braves the clods. To her delight, John eventually shows up and, under a wintery moon, kisses her and proposes. As soon as Esther starts to think about being separated from her family, however, she has second thoughts about marrying. Later, at home, Tootie cries to Esther about the impending move and, as her bewildered father watches from a window, runs outside and angrily begins smashing the snow people she helped build. After calling the family together, Lon then announces that that they are staying in St. Louis. Months later in the spring of 1904, the Smiths and John head for the just-opened Exposition and are thrilled by the thought that such incredible sights are in their very own town.