Cary Scott (Jane Wyman) is a well-to-do widow gradually re-entering a social life amongst her mostly dull country club peers. Her only apparent enjoyment in life comes from weekend visits from her college-age children. Cary then meets a handsome younger man, Ron (Rock Hudson), who owns a small landscaping business. Ron is a follower of Henry David Thoreau's Walden, and "hears a different drummer", enjoying a life focused on nature; he is deliberately uninterested in the gossipy opinions of others. Their romance causes clashes and tensions between Cary, her children, and the country club folk.