Edwin Porter, a Methodist minister, is sent to a little church in the small town of Sterling, Texas, to try to save it from financial insolvency. The move is sudden and is complicated by the fact that Porter’s wife and eight children are all very comfortable in the large, successful church they have been serving in Dallas.

Wealthy landowner Dr. Earl Denton buys a premium development with the intention of leaving it to his daughter, Joan. When Joan gets impregnated by her mechanic boyfriend, she tries to convince her father to help her get an abortion, despite the protestations of her boyfriend.