Following the death of her husband forty years earlier, Mary Hastings has taken the family business from a small blacksmith's shop to a major industrial plant, the Hastings Plow Works, and is now considering retirement. As she believes that her own family is incompetent to take over the business, Mary turns it over to the board of directors, which is comprised of employees who have been working at the plant for many years. Three years after Mary's retirement, the Great Depression causes business profits to drop by ninety percent, placing the town on the verge of financial ruin. Mary realizes that she must do something to help, and orders her wastrel son Willard and daughter Henrietta home from their lengthy European vacations. Willard decides to close the plant and move the family to Paris, but the plant labor organizer, Jim Devlin, intervenes and demands action from him. While Willard plans to depart the country secretly, Jim meets and falls in love with Mary's granddaughter, Jean. Willard agrees to a meeting with the workers, but a riot breaks out when he is caught leaving the town, and his son, Alex, is accidentally killed. The disgruntled plant workers are soon offered hope, however, when Mary promises to reopen the plant with money she has managed to raise. With life in the town back to normal, Jim and Jean renew their romance.