Ethan Wilkins is a poor and honest man who ministers to the human soul, while his son Jason yearns to be a doctor, helping people in the earthly realm.

When Rev. Ethan Wilkins (Walter Huston) relocates his family from a thriving parish in Maryland to a poor village on the Ohio River, his devoted wife, Mary (Beulah Bondi), is understanding, but his young son, Jason (Gene Reynolds), struggles to adapt. Jason admires the local physician, Dr. Charles Shingle (Charles Coburn), who offers magazines to Jason that Ethan will not allow him to accept. When Mary sells some of her possessions to get Jason a subscription to Harper's Monthly, Ethan still finds the magazine inappropriate, creating a further rift. Years later when Jason is a young man (James Stewart), he and his father get into a fight when Jason acts rudely while they are on a backwoods circuit tour. Jason leaves to study medicine in Virginia. He constantly asks his parents for money, which they are only able to provide by selling their possessions, which they do without complaint. Mary writes Jason to tell him that Ethan is dying, but Jason does not return in time before Ethan passes away. Jason's letters to his mother become less frequent and stop altogether when the Civil War begins and Jason is called to service. In desperation and believing Jason must be dead, Mary writes to President Abraham Lincoln (John Carradine) to ask for information on where his grave is located. But Jason is very much alive and in need of a change in perspective, which the President is willing to provide.—Patrick Depew