The Land Is Bright

The second and third acts follow the family over the next generations as they strive to become acceptable in respectable New York high society.

The second and some of the third generation engages in much difficult behavior (consorting with murderous gangsters, multiple marriages, abandoning America) but as the play moves to current time the last generation redeems the family: the patriarch's grandson abjures the pursuit of wealth to serve in the government for the emergency, one great-grandson has enlisted in the Air Corps, and most of the other Kincaids exhibit redemptive behavior and learn the nature of patriotic sacrifice in order to become true Americans.

The final act ends with a rousing speech for patriotic action in the face of the rising Nazi Germany.

[1] Kaufman and Ferber had earlier collaborated on Minick,[citation needed] The Royal Family, Dinner at Eight, and Stage Door, and would again on Bravo!.

[11] Eleanor Roosevelt was more enthusiastic, particularly of the message: "leaves you no moment when you are not tensely held by the action on the stage...