Harry Lambert is a New England lumber company executive in a humdrum life with his wife Edith. He feels his life has grown stale since his recent defeat in an election for town mayor. Adding to his frustrations, the mayor who defeated him in the election is a neighbour. His adult daughter Kate is of little or no help to anybody; she and her husband Charlie live with Harry and Edith, and Charlie lives a freeloader's life, working at the lumber company.