Overview

The father runs a hardware store in a small town, and his views on life fit pretty much into his confined surroundings. The mother accepts her fate with more humor than bitterness, but she does want her daughter to have a little fun out of life. The daughter, unfortunately, is frail and is treated like an invalid up until the time she is ready to have a beau. She accepts her invalidism and nearly succumbs to it until she is dated, through an accident, with the most popular boy in high school for the senior prom. The night of the prom the weather is bad, but despite this, and the fact that Cynthia is running a temperature from the excitement of it all, the mother insists that she go, even though the father and in-laws classify the act in the same category as murder. It was a wonderful, wonderful dance, but Cynthia becomes very sick aterward and nearly dies. After the doctor has just about given up hope, the mother calls up the boy pretending she is the child speaking and asks him to come on over for a visit. Together they pull Cynthia through a pneumonia crisis.