Ex-commercial artist John Hamilton (Alan Ladd) and wife Linda (Carolyn Jones) have left New York and moved to Stoneville, Connecticut, in the New England countryside.

John spends his time sketching the town's children, for whom he is a close friend, but his ambitions to be a fine artist are at this point frustrated by a failed art show and bad reviews.

John returns home after a day's sketching to find Steve Ritter (Charles McGraw), a local policeman, in his house with Linda upstairs changing clothes.

John agrees to go to New York to have a drink with his old boss, a meeting arranged by his wife behind his back, but is resolute that he will decline the job offer.

Many of the outdoor scenes were shot in Thompson, Connecticut, on the town common where a set was built (gas station) and at the Ballard Farm.

The lines show a keen love for kids and an honest regard for the need to interject reality into a yarn that is tediously familiar once it settles down into its melodramatic formula.

Mr. Ladd, on the other hand, performs in his usual, cool style, which under the hectic circumstances mutes his personality to the point of unreality.