Following his dismissal from a Drapery's shop, where his father had placed him as an apprentice, protagonist Alfred Polly (John Mills) finds it hard to find another position. When a telegram arrives informing him of his father's death, he returns to the family home. With a bequest of £500, Polly starts to consider his future; and a friend of his father's, Mr Johnsen (Edward Chapman), urges him to invest it in a shop - an idea that Polly hates. Whilst dawdling in the country on a newly-bought bicycle, Polly has a brief dalliance with a schoolgirl, Christabel (Sally Ann Howes); but later marries a cousin, Miriam Larkins (Betty Ann Davies). Fifteen years later, Polly and his wife are running a drapery in Fishbourne, and the marriage has descended to incessant arguments and bickering. While walking in the country, Polly decides to commit suicide but he also sets his shop ablaze in the hope that the insurance will assure Miriam's prosperity; he botches the arson job and, instead of killing himself, rescues an elderly neighbour and becomes a minor local celebrity. Still unhappy, Polly leaves Miriam and is hired by a rural innkeeper (Megs Jenkins) as handyman and ferryman; however, he soon realises that the position was open because the innkeeper's brother-in-law Jim (Finlay Currie) is a drunkard who chases any other man away from the inn. Polly clashes with Jim until the latter accidentally drowns in a weir when he is chasing Polly. Several years later, Polly returns to Fishbourne to find Miriam operating a tea-shop with her sister, in the belief that Polly has drowned, and he returns to his happier life at the inn.
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