[2] In 1929, Bill White (Grant Withers), is a railroad engineer and boozing womanizer who is evicted from his boarding house for excessive drinking and late rental payments.

Needing a new place to live, he accepts the invitation from his longtime friend and fellow engineer, Jack Kulper (Regis Toomey), to move into his home, where he resides happily with his wife Lily (Mary Astor).

Jack initially thinks Lily and his friend have had a quarrel, but he later confronts Bill inside the cab of the coal-fired steam locomotive that the two men operate together at the nearby rail yard.

Increasingly frustrated by his situation, he insists that Lily leave town for a few weeks to visit her parents, explaining that he needs emotional space and that he also wants her away from the dangers of expected floods due to rainstorms in the area.

Stumbling that night through a heavy downpour and literally feeling his way to the rail line, sightless Jack manages to locate Bill and knock him unconscious before he begins what everyone deems a suicidal mission.

The two see one another and engage in some awkward small talk before Lily remarks that she intends to remain in the community, fix up her house and yard, and plant a new spring garden.

Lily stands in the restaurant's doorway watching Bill climb to the top of a long line of freight cars and then running forward toward the engine.