It is somewhat loosely based on the 1918 Broadway play of the same name by Austin Strong and Winchell Smith,[2] which had also been adapted to film in 1923, in a silent version directed by King Vidor.

This version is different in several respects from the original play and earlier film, changing some characters and plot elements, notably introducing a group of small supernatural people, referred to at times as "fairies," "pixies" or "leprechauns," who live in an ancient tree on an American estate.

Young girl Sheila O'Monahan, the orphaned granddaughter of the recently deceased Rena, arrives, accompanied by longtime family servant Terence Aloysius O'Davern, and informs the three men that they are supposed to take her in as an adopted goddaughter.

Initially rejecting her, the three men discover they have made an embarrassing mistake: the land they donated actually belongs to Sheila, Rena's sole surviving descendent and heir.

Sheila believes in Irish magic and the supernatural beings said to live in the old tree on Rena's land, invoking them at times in Gaelic.