A young girl's father objects to Miss Hunter's teaching Evolution. During a drunken rage he burns down the school and is killed in the fire.

Olivia's uncle Cody visits from Cincinnati. He is a bachelor and a bank accountant, near retirement but put out of work by the bank closings. They attempt to cheer him up by introducing him to a lively, spirited local widow, who charms him and he begins to court her. He is discouraged after learning of her four marriages (two divorces and two deaths), but when he hears good news about the banks, he finally resolves to ask her to marry him.