Primrose Path is a 1940 film about a young woman determined not to follow the profession of her mother and grandmother: prostitution.

Her alcoholic, Greek scholar father Homer (Miles Mander) is unemployable, leaving her loving mother Mamie (Marjorie Rambeau) to support the family by going out with men.

Gramp runs a beachside restaurant and gas station along with wisecracking Ed Wallace (Joel McCrea).

To add to her woes, her father accidentally shoots her mother during one of his drunken, half-hearted attempts at suicide.

Thelma (Vivienne Osborne), Mamie's friend and co-worker, arranges for Ellie May to accompany her, her current boyfriend, and "Mr. Smith" (an uncredited Charles Lane) on a car trip to San Francisco.