When Tom Redding's wealthy father dies and it turns out that all he left Tom was a mountain of debts, all of his "friends" desert him--except young Mary Austin. Determined to get out from all his debt, Tom heads west and eventually strikes it rich with an oil well. Now wealthy, he hatches a plan to get even with his "friends" in his hometown--by pretending to return home broke but having a colleague secretly buy up as much property in town as he can.

"To roll back to the old "home town" some day in a limousine- that's the ambition of every boy who leaves Main street to seek his fortune. George Ade has put this idea into his funniest, most human story."